Patent Publication Number: US-2023145509-A1

Title: Network communication apparatus and network communication monitoring method thereof having full band monitoring mechanism

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     The present invention relates to a network communication apparatus and a network communication monitoring method thereof having full band monitoring mechanism. 
     2. Description of Related Art 
     In wireless network communication, different loading conditions occur to different frequency bands due to the condition of the environment. For example, a larger amount of interference occurs to some frequency bands since more communications are performed therein. Almost no interference occurs to some other frequency bands since no communication is performed therein. Since the loading of the frequency bands affects the wireless communication quality, the efficiency of communication can be increased if a network communication apparatus is equipped with frequency band monitoring mechanism to monitor the condition of each of sub-bands. 
     However, the cost to obtain the loading information in current technology is too high. Further, the receivers in the network communication apparatus have to operate in an operation mode and a monitoring mode in an interlaced manner. When the number of the frequency bands is larger, the receivers need to spend more time to perform monitoring and data collection. The efficiency of the frequency monitoring decreases accordingly. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     In consideration of the problem of the prior art, an object of the present invention is to supply a network communication apparatus and a network communication monitoring method thereof having full band monitoring mechanism. 
     The present invention discloses a network communication apparatus having full band monitoring mechanism that includes an antenna circuit, a receiving circuit, a plurality of sub-band filtering circuits and a plurality of monitoring circuits. The antenna circuit is configured to receive a set of wireless signals in a full band. The receiving circuit includes a plurality of receivers configured to receive the set of wireless signals to generate a set of received signals, wherein a first part of the receivers operate in a service mode to perform data signal receiving corresponding to an operation frequency sub-band, and a second part of the receivers operate in a monitoring mode to perform interference signal monitoring on a plurality of monitoring frequency sub-bands in the full band. The sub-band filtering circuits are configured to perform filtering on the set of received signals generated by the receivers that operate in the monitoring mode to generate a filtered signal. The monitoring circuits are configured to monitor the filtered signal generated by the sub-band filtering circuits to generate signal parameter statistical data. 
     The present invention also discloses a network communication monitoring method having full band monitoring mechanism that includes steps outlined below. A set of wireless signals in a full band are received by an antenna circuit. The set of wireless signals are received by a plurality of receivers included by a receiving circuit to generate a set of received signals, wherein a first part of the receivers operate in a service mode to perform data signal receiving corresponding to an operation frequency sub-band, and a second part of the receivers operate in a monitoring mode to perform interference signal monitoring on a plurality of monitoring frequency sub-bands in the full band. Filtering is performed on the set of received signals generated by the receivers that operate in the monitoring mode by a plurality of sub-band filtering circuits to generate a filtered signal. The filtered signal generated by the sub-band filtering circuits is monitored by a plurality of monitoring circuits to generate signal parameter statistical data. 
     These and other objectives of the present invention will no doubt become obvious to those of ordinary skill in the art behind reading the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments that are illustrated in the various figures and drawings. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG.  1    illustrates a block diagram of a network communication apparatus having full band monitoring mechanism according to an embodiment of the present invention. 
         FIG.  2    illustrates a block diagram of the monitoring circuit according to an embodiment of the present invention. 
         FIG.  3 A  and  FIG.  3 B  illustrate diagrams of two receivers that respectively belong to the first part of the receivers and the second part of the receivers according to an embodiment of the present invention. 
         FIG.  4    illustrates a timing diagram of the operation that the receivers perform to receive a data packet according to an embodiment of the present invention. 
         FIG.  5    illustrates a flow chart of a network communication monitoring method having full band monitoring mechanism according to an embodiment of the present invention. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
     An aspect of the present invention is to provide a network communication apparatus and a network communication monitoring method thereof having full band monitoring mechanism to avoid the time-consuming process and the incomplete information generated due to continuous switching among different frequency bands by using receivers operating in a monitoring mode and by disposing corresponding filter circuits and monitoring circuits, such that a quick and complete full band monitoring can be accomplished to select a sub-band with better condition to perform communication according to the frequency band monitoring result. 
     Reference is now made to  FIG.  1   .  FIG.  1    illustrates a block diagram of a network communication apparatus  100  having full band monitoring mechanism according to an embodiment of the present invention. In an embodiment, the network communication apparatus  100  is a device that performs communication based on IEEE 802.11be standard, such as but not limited to an access point (AP) device. The network communication apparatus  100  includes an antenna circuit  110 , a receiving circuit  120 , a plurality of sub-band filtering circuits  130 , a plurality of monitoring circuits  140 , a storage circuit  150  and processing circuit  160 . 
     The antenna circuit  110  is configured to receive a set of wireless signals WS in a full band. In an embodiment, the full band includes a range of 320 MHz and can be divided into a plurality of sub-bands, i.e., sub-channels. In an embodiment, the smallest unit of the sub-bands can be such as, but not limited to 20 MHz. 
     The wireless signals WS include data signals that are supposed to be transmitted to the network communication apparatus  100  and also include interference signals that are not supposed to be transmitted to the network communication apparatus  100 . In  FIG.  1   , the set of wireless signals WS transmitted along with time corresponding to the Y-axis are exemplarily illustrated. Blocks arranged into a grid are illustrated that stand for the signals each occupying one or more sub-bands corresponding to the X-axis. In  FIG.  1   , different sub-bands are labeled by numbers of 1 to 16. 
     In an embodiment, the receiving circuit  120  is disposed in a radio frequency (RF) circuit and includes a plurality of receivers  125 . The receivers  125  are configured to receive the set of wireless signals WS to generate a set of received signals RS. In an embodiment, each of the receivers  125  includes a plurality of mixers (not illustrated in the figure) having central frequency switching mechanism to set the central frequency of the receiving path (channel) that each of the receivers  125  corresponds to. 
     A first part of the receivers  125  operate in a service mode to perform data signal receiving corresponding to an operation frequency sub-band. More specifically, the first part of the receivers  125 , corresponding to an operation frequency sub-band, receive the signals that are supposed to be transmitted to the network communication apparatus  100  and further transmit the signals to other data processing circuit (not illustrated in the figure) to process data included in the signals. 
     A second part of the receivers  125  operate in a monitoring mode to perform interference signal monitoring on a plurality of monitoring frequency sub-bands in the full band. More specifically, the second part of the receivers  125  receive the signals from all the sub-bands in the full band having the range of 320 MHz such that the signals of the sub-bands are monitored and statistics are performed thereon by using other circuits such as the sub-band filtering circuits  130  and the monitoring circuits  140  to determine the communication quality of the sub-bands. 
     In an embodiment, the receivers  125  described above not only receive the signals within the sub-bands corresponding to the smallest unit, but also are capable of receiving the signals of the sub-bands corresponding to a larger range (e.g., 40 or 80 MHz). 
     In an embodiment, the network communication apparatus  100  may selectively include an analog-to-digital circuit and a digital front end circuit (not illustrated in the figure) to perform analog-to-digital conversion on the received signals RS generated by the receivers  125  and perform such as, but not limited to frequency down-conversion thereon accordingly. The processed signals are further transmitted to the sub-band filtering circuits  130 . 
     Each of the sub-band filtering circuits  130  is configured to perform filtering on the set of received signal RS generated by the receivers  125  that operate in the monitoring mode to generate a filtered signal FS. In an embodiment, each of the sub-band filtering circuits  130  performs filtering corresponding to a range of such as, but not limited to 20 MHz to generate the filtered signal FS in the corresponding sub-band range. In another embodiment, the sub-band filtering circuits  130  is configured to perform filtering on the received signals RS generated by all the receivers  125  to generate the filtered signal FS. 
     Each of the monitoring circuits  140  is configured to monitor the filtered signal FS generated by each of the sub-band filtering circuits  130  to generate signal parameter statistical data SSD. In an embodiment, the monitoring performed by the monitoring circuits  140  includes such as, but not limited to whether the filtered signal FS includes a preamble and an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbol and an intensity of a signal energy and a received signal strength indicator (RSSI). According to the monitoring described above, the signal parameter statistical data SSD generated by the monitoring circuits  140  includes such as, but not limited to a signal type statistic result STR and a signal intensity and distance statistic result SDR. 
     Reference is now made to  FIG.  2   .  FIG.  2    illustrates a block diagram of the monitoring circuit  140  according to an embodiment of the present invention. In an embodiment, the monitoring circuit  140  includes a packet detection circuit  200 , a packet payload detection circuit  210 , an energy detection circuit  220  and a signal intensity detection circuit  230 . 
     The packet detection circuit  200  is configured to determine whether the filtered signal FS includes the preamble to generate a preamble determination result PR. The packet payload detection circuit  210  is configured to determine whether the filtered signal FS includes the OFDM symbol to generate a symbol determination result SR. 
     In an embodiment, the calculation of such as, but not limited to auto-correlation or cross-correlation can be performed on the filtered signal FS to determine whether the filtered signal FS includes the preamble and the OFDM symbol. 
     The preamble determination result PR and the symbol determination result SR can be used to identify the loading characteristic of the signals in each of the monitoring frequency sub-bands that each of the sub-band filtering circuits  130  corresponds to. More specifically, the signal type of the signals in each of the monitoring frequency sub-bands can be determined to identify whether the transmission of the wireless signals corresponds to WiFi or other communication protocols according to the preamble determination result PR and the symbol determination result SR. 
     In an embodiment, the packet detection circuit  200  and the packet payload detection circuit  210  further perform statistics on an accumulated number of the preamble determination result RP and the symbol determination result SR. The accumulated number of each of the preamble determination result RP and symbol determination result SR is included in the signal type statistic result STR. 
     The energy detection circuit  220  is configured to determine a signal energy ES of the filtered signal FS. The signal intensity detection circuit  230  is configured to determine a received signal strength indicator RSSI of the filtered signal FS. 
     The signal energy ES and the received signal strength indicator RSSI are used to identify the intensity of the signals in each of the monitoring frequency sub-bands that each of the sub-band filtering circuits  130  corresponds to, such that the degree of interference generated thereby can be determined. An interference distance of each of the signals can be estimated according to the received signal strength indicator RSSI. 
     In an embodiment, the energy detection circuit  220  and the signal intensity detection circuit  230  can further perform statistics on an average of each of the signal energy ES and the received signal strength indicator RSSI. The average of each of the signal energy ES and the received signal strength indicator RSSI is included in the signal intensity and distance statistic result SDR. 
     As a result, after the operation of the circuits described above, the monitoring circuits  140  generate the signal parameter statistical data SSD including the signal type statistic result STR and the signal intensity and distance statistic result SDR. It is appreciated that the circuits included in the monitoring circuits  140  and the parameters monitored thereby described above are merely an example. In other embodiments, the monitoring circuits  140  may include other circuits to monitor other parameters according to practical requirements. 
     The storage circuit  150  is configured to store the signal parameter statistical data SSD generated by the monitoring circuits  140 . The processing circuit  160  operates monitoring software and/or hardware and is configured to access the signal parameter statistical data SSD from the storage circuit  150  through such as, but not limited to a direct memory access (DMA) circuit to determine a signal type and a signal intensity and distance of a corresponding one of the monitoring frequency sub-bands. 
     In an embodiment, the processing circuit  160  is further configured to set the operation frequency sub-band that the first part of the receivers  125  corresponds to according to the signal type and the signal intensity and distance of each of the monitoring frequency sub-bands. 
     More specifically, the processing circuit  160  can obtain the signal interference condition of each of the sub-bands according to the monitoring of the signal type and the signal intensity and distance of each of the sub-bands, so as to further determine the communication quality of each of the sub-bands. For example, the processing circuit  160  can perform the operation of such as, but not limited to setting the frequency to be detected within a predetermined time and determine the communication quality of each of the sub-bands according to the number and the energy amount of a specific detected signal type. Based on the communication quality of each of the sub-bands, the processing circuit  160  can control the network communication apparatus  100  to avoid the sub-bands having a worse communication quality and select the sub-bands having a better communication quality to perform communication. The communication can therefore be performed in the sub-bands having the better communication quality. 
     Reference is now made to  FIG.  3 A  and  FIG.  3 B  at the same time.  FIG.  3 A  and  FIG.  3 B  illustrate diagrams of two receivers  125  that respectively belong to the first part of the receivers  125  and the second part of the receivers  125  according to an embodiment of the present invention. 
     As illustrated in  FIG.  3 A , the receiver  125  that belongs to the first part of the receivers  125  is labeled as RX 0  (which is called the receiver RX 0  in the following paragraph), in which the receiver RX 0  keeps operating in the service mode and sets a central frequency F 0  so as to perform data signal receiving in a sub-band SB 0  (operation frequency sub-band). The receiver  125  that belongs to the second part of the receivers  125  is labeled as RX 1  (which is called the receiver RX 1  in the following paragraph), in which the receiver RX 1  operates in the monitoring mode, and sets a central frequency F 1  so as to perform interference signal monitoring in a sub-band SB 1  (monitoring frequency sub-band). 
     In some applications, the data signal requires a plurality of receivers operating together to receive. As a result, as illustrated in  FIG.  3 B , since each of the receivers includes the mixers having central frequency switching mechanism, the receiver RX 1  is configured to shift the central frequency from F 1  to F 0  by using the mixers to switch to the sub-band SB 0  when the receiving capability of the receiver RX 0  is insufficient. The receiver RX 1  thus cooperates with the receiver RX 0  to perform data signal receiving. When the data signal receiving is finished performing, the receiver RX 1  can switch back to the sub-band SB 1  to keep performing monitoring. 
     Reference is now made to  FIG.  4   .  FIG.  4    illustrates a timing diagram of the operation that the receivers  125  perform to receive a data packet DP according to an embodiment of the present invention. 
       FIG.  4    illustrates the frequency band status BS of the sub-band BO (operation frequency sub-band) described above. At first, the frequency band status BS is at an idle status IDLE. Along with the arrival of the data packet DP, the receivers  125  in turn receive a packet header PH and a packet payload PL included in the data packet DP. The packet header PH further includes such as, but not limited to a short training field STF, a long training field LTF and a signal field SIG. 
     It is appreciated that the content included in the packet header PH described above is merely an example. In other embodiments, the packet header PH may selectively includes other entries. 
     The receiver RX 0  performs packet detection PD corresponding to the sub-bands SB 0 . When the long training field LTF in the packet header PH is finished being detected, the receiver RX 0  starts to perform packet data receiving DR. As a result, the receiver RX 0  always performs data signal receiving on the sub-band SB 0 . 
     The receiver RX 1  performs interference signal monitoring MON on the sub-band SB 1  (monitoring frequency sub-band) at first. When the receiver RX 0  receives the packet header PH, the receiver RX 1  switches to the sub-band SB 0  to perform determining process DTP to determine whether the receiving capability of the receiver RX 0  is sufficient according to at least one of the short training field STF, the long training field LTF and the signal field SIG in the packet header PH. 
     As a result, corresponding to the condition 1 labeled in  FIG.  4   , when the receiving capability of the receiver RX 0  is insufficient, the receiver RX 1  keeps operating in the sub-band SB 0  to perform packet data receiving DR, so as to cooperate with the receiver RX 0  to perform data signal receiving. The receiver RX 1  switches back to the corresponding sub-band SB 1  to perform interference signal monitoring after the data signal receiving is finished. 
     Corresponding to the condition 2 labeled in  FIG.  4   , when the receiving capability of the receiver RX 0  is determined to be sufficient by the receiver RX 1  according to the determining process DTP, the receiver RX 1  switches back to the corresponding sub-band SB 1  to keep performing interference signal monitoring. 
     It is appreciated that the frequency band switching mechanism of the receivers described above can be performed under the control of the processing circuit  160  in  FIG.  1   . Moreover, the above embodiment is described based on the condition that the data signal requires two receivers to receive. In other embodiments, when the data signal requires more than two receivers to receive and the receiving capability of the receivers under the service mode is insufficient, the other receivers under the monitoring mode can switch the sub-bands to support the receivers under the service mode. The present invention is not limited thereto. 
     In some approaches, the frequency band monitoring mechanism is performed based on a time-division multiplexing method to control the receivers by software and/or hardware to keep switching back and forth from the operation frequency sub-band and all the sub-bands to be monitored until all the frequency bands are monitored. Such a method is not only time-consuming, but also unable to obtain a complete monitoring information. 
     As a result, the network communication apparatus  100  of the present invention avoids the time-consuming process and the incomplete information generated due to continuous switching among different frequency bands by using receivers operating in a monitoring mode and by disposing corresponding filter circuits and monitoring circuits, such that a quick and complete full band monitoring can be accomplished to select a sub-band with better condition to perform communication according to the frequency band monitoring result. 
     Reference is now made to  FIG.  5   .  FIG.  5    illustrates a flow chart of a network communication monitoring method  500  having full band monitoring mechanism according to an embodiment of the present invention. 
     In addition to the apparatus described above, the present disclosure further provides the network communication monitoring method  500  that can be used in such as, but not limited to, the network communication apparatus in  FIG.  1   . As illustrated in  FIG.  5   , an embodiment of the network communication monitoring method  500  includes the following steps. 
     In step S 510 , the set of wireless signals WS in the full band are received by the antenna circuit  110 . 
     In step S 520 , the set of wireless signals WS are received by the receivers  125  included by the receiving circuit  120  to generate the set of received signals RS, wherein the first part of the receivers  125  operate in the service mode to perform data signal receiving corresponding to the operation frequency sub-band, and the second part of the receivers  125  operate in the monitoring mode to perform interference signal monitoring on all the monitoring frequency sub-bands in the full band. 
     In step S 530 , filtering is performed on the set of received signals RS generated by the receivers  125  that operate in the monitoring mode by each of the sub-band filtering circuits  130  to generate the filtered signal FS. 
     In step S 540 , the filtered signal FS generated by each of the sub-band filtering circuits  130  is monitored by each of the monitoring circuits  140  to generate the signal parameter statistical data SSD. 
     It is appreciated that the embodiments described above are merely an example. In other embodiments, it should be appreciated that many modifications and changes may be made by those of ordinary skill in the art without departing, from the spirit of the disclosure. 
     In summary, the present invention discloses the network communication apparatus and the network communication monitoring method thereof having full band monitoring mechanism avoid the time-consuming process and the incomplete information generated due to continuous switching among different frequency bands by using receivers operating in a monitoring mode and by disposing corresponding filter circuits and monitoring circuits, such that a quick and complete full band monitoring can be accomplished to select a sub-band with better condition to perform communication according to the frequency band monitoring result. 
     The aforementioned descriptions represent merely the preferred embodiments of the present invention, without any intention to limit the scope of the present invention thereto. Various equivalent changes, alterations, or modifications based on the claims of present invention are all consequently viewed as being embraced by the scope of the present invention.