Patent Publication Number: US-2009238166-A1

Title: Method for realtime digital processing of communications signals

Description:
RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     This is a continuation of co-pending U.S. Patent Application Ser. No. 10/225,707 filed Aug. 22, 2002 entitled Method For Realtime Digital Processing Of Communications Signals, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference. 
    
    
     FIELD OF INVENTION 
     This invention relates to communications systems and more particularly to a method and apparatus for accurately controlling the transmission of communications signals. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     When building either a communications system or, for instance, a jamming system, it is important that a particular pattern of RF energy be transmitted and that this transmission be made to occur at a precise time. The signals to be transmitted are usually reconstructed from an original signal after the original signal has been processed. Whether the transmission contains analog or digital information, it is important that the reconstructed signal be transmitted at a particular point in time. 
     This is especially true in communications systems such as time division multiple access systems, in which data is allocated to particular timeslots. In the past, in order to make sure that the data is transmitted exactly at the particular instant of time necessary to place the necessary data in a particular timeslot, the entire transmitting system or indeed, for instance, the entire radio must have timing for each of its parts which is sufficiently accurate so that the signals are in fact transmitted at the appropriate time instant. 
     This means that assuming, for instance, information is coming in which is converted from analog to digital by an analog-to-digital converter, and further assuming, for instance, that digital processing is used to further process the digitized original signal, and even further assuming that the output of the digital processing is coupled with a digital-to-analog converter coupled to a transmitter, then it will be appreciated that if the transmission is to occur at a precise instant in time, the timing associated with all of the above components must be exceedingly accurate. Thus the problem is that there must be real time processing throughout all of the components used in generating the signal. This requires knowledge of any latency characteristics or delays, along with the provision of an exceedingly accurate timing standard for each one of the components. Note that for purposes of the present invention realtime means better accuracy than that available from standard off-the-shelf products, for instance, nanosecond accuracy. 
     Achieving such realtime accuracy is an expensive costly process involving specialized hardware that is developed for each and every application. 
     The result is whether one is dealing with communications equipment or, for instance, jamming systems in which jamming pulses must be emitted with a particular signature at a particular instant of time, in the past the elements themselves making up the entire system must have their timing so carefully constrained and controlled that timing errors are reduced to nanoseconds. It is thus only with difficulty with commercial off-the-shelf products that one can arrange for this type of accuracy. 
     For instance, if a general-purpose digital processing circuit is used to in any way alter or process an input signal, about the best accuracy commonly available with standard clocks is millisecond accuracy. The dominant source of timing error thus resides in the digital processing circuitry, with millisecond accuracies being insufficient for many applications. The result is that common digital processing units such as general-purpose processors do not provide for the transmission of signals at the precise point in time required. While general purpose processors are in fact quite common and inexpensive, these processors cannot without massive specialized reconfiguration be used to create accurately timed transmissions. 
     In short, the problem in the past is that the elements making up the communications system must themselves be controlled to nanosecond accuracies to provide the real time result. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     Rather than having each of the elements in the communication chain be so tightly controlled and therefore expensive, in the subject invention only a single element, namely a precision output gate, must be provided to guarantee transmission of a signal at a precise start time. 
     In order to accomplish this for any generalized type of communications system, digitized information is coupled to a digital processing unit that is a general-purpose processor provided with a system clock which, for instance, is only capable of millisecond accuracies. The purpose of the general-purpose digital processor is to process inputted signals and to provide packetized data, with each packet being time-stamped to indicate the exact instant at which the information contained in the packets should be transmitted. The packets are therefore provided with a time header followed by the remainder of the data, which in one embodiment is coupled to a packet storage buffer. The output of the packet storage buffer is coupled to a precise time output gate which has as its time reference a precision time reference, in one embodiment, a rubidium oscillator or clock. The gate thus establishes the required nanosecond accuracy. 
     The information from the packet storage buffer is read out by the precision time output gate in accordance with the time specified by the header of the packet. Thus, the subject system has the ability to generate data in packetized form and places a time tag as a header to the packet, where the time tag indicates when the data should be sent out. Note that the time stamped packets of data are generated with components all working in non-real time. 
     As will be seen, it is only the gate that is synchronized with a precision time standard. Thus, the packet is transmitted at a time controlled by a precision time reference and is not corrupted by any latencies and more inaccurate time references used in general purpose computing. 
     It will be appreciated that the time delays associated with the digital-to-analog converter used after the precision time output gate as well as the transmitter are not the dominant source of timing error. Thus, while standard off-the-shelf components are capable of providing millisecond accuracy at reasonable cost, nanosecond accuracy is achieved by providing only a small interface card. As a result, the remainder of the system need only exhibit millisecond accuracy. 
     While heretofore an entire radio had to be synchronized to transmit TDMA signals, now it is only the interface card that must be a real time device. It will be appreciated that the interface card is all that is needed to be synchronized by a precision clock, with the rest of the communications chain working at its own pace. 
     In short, while one might have to have had precision control in the timed generation of signals themselves so that they come out at a particular time, with the subject invention one does not have to pay particular attention to the generation of the data as long as when it comes out there is sufficient time to precision gate it out. 
     Applications for the precisely timed outputs can be understood when considering handset-based TDMA wireless transmissions. In the past, in order for these transmissions to properly allocate data into particular time slots, the entire radio had to have precise timing characteristics. With the subject invention, the only thing that needs to have a precise timing characteristic is the interface card with the precision output gate. 
     Another application requiring precisely time transmissions is when one has to generate synchronized radar pulses. It is oftentimes the case that radar pulses must be moved in time or jittered, with the jitter under computer control. The control of the jitter requires precise timing. With the subject invention, the jittering can be generated off-line and then gated to the radar transmitter with precise timing. 
     Likewise, when it is important in jamming scenarios to generate jamming pulses having a particular signature or content at a precise time, it is important to be able to time these pulses so as to spoof or otherwise provide inaccurate misinformation to the object being jammed. While presently specialized apparatus is provided throughout the communications chain in the generation of the jamming signal, through the utilization of the subject invention, commercial off-the-shelf products may be utilized to generate the jamming pulses, with the timing of the jamming pulses being controlled simply by the precision timed gate. 
     While in some instances, it is the general purpose processor which determines the time at which a packet is to be transmitted and therefore generates the time stamps, in another embodiment, time stamps may be supplied to the general purpose processor through an analog-to-digital converter which is in turn coupled to a receiver, such that the receiver specifies what the time stamp should be. 
     In short, the dominant source of timing error, involving the general-purpose processor is removed from the precision time path so that non-dominant errors are removed as a source of timing error. 
     With respect to the precision time reference, it will be appreciated that off-the-shelf rubidium oscillators are available to provide nanosecond timing. These devices can be used in a precision time clock which may be slaved to real time through the receipt and use of timing signals from global positioning satellites. Thus, while the internal timing accuracy is determined by the rubidium oscillator clock, the clock can be set with respect to Greenwich Mean Time through the use of ultra-accurate timing signals from GPS satellites. Since for telecommunications purposes, cell sites and other transmitters depend on GPS signals for their timing, the precision time reference described above when slaved to the GPS-generated time source can be considered the ultimate in a real time clock. 
     In summary, in a communications system, accurate timing of the transmission of reconstructed signals is accomplished through the use of standard off-the-shelf components to create the appropriate signals. In order to eliminate timing errors caused by the standard off-the-shelf components, the output from the non-real time components is coupled to a realtime interface that assures nanosecond timing accuracy regardless of timing errors introduced by the off-the-shelf components. In one embodiment, the signals to be transmitted are digitized and then packetized, with the data to be transmitted assembled using non-real time digital processing. In order to establish the exact time for transmission, the packet is given a time stamp in the form of a header which indicates the exact time at which the packet is to be transmitted by the communications system, with the packet with header being transmitted to a storage buffer, the output of which is coupled to a realtime interface including a precise time output gate, the timing of which is controlled by a precision time reference having nano-second accuracy. 
     As long as the general purpose digital processing provides packetized data with the sufficient time to be able to transmit the data at a particular time, the precise moment at which the data is transmitted is controlled by the precision time reference, which in one embodiment includes a rubidium oscillator or clock. The result is that while the dominant source of timing error is in the general purpose digital processor, this source of timing error is removed from the precision time path through the packet storage buffer and the precision gating which responds to the time stamp to know exactly when to transmit the associated data. In one embodiment, the gated data is converted to an analog signal with the use of a digital-to-analog converter that has minimal impact on timing. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       These and other features of the subject invention will be better understood in conjunction with the Detailed Description in connection with the Drawings, which: 
         FIG. 1  is a block diagram of a prior art communications system in which both the digital processing and a digital-to-analog converter as well as a transmitter contribute to the real time performance of the system, with the digital processing required to be of a specialized variety to achieve the required timing accuracy; and, 
         FIG. 2  is a block diagram of the subject system in which a general purpose processor having on critical timing clock is used to generate timestamps and data packets which are coupled to a packet storage buffer in turn coupled to a precision time output gate through which information from the general purpose processor is transmitted at a particular and accurate point in time. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION  
     Referring now to  FIG. 1 , a communications system is generally designated by reference character  10  to include in one embodiment a receiver  12 , an analog-to-digital converter  14 , a digital processing unit  16  coupled to a digital-to-analog converter  18  that is, in turn coupled to a transmitter  20 . If, as an example, the system is one in which receiver  12  detects an incoming signal to be used for jamming, the system is designed to convert it via an analog-to-digital converter to a digital signal to be used by digital processing unit  16  to alter it for jamming purposes. The altered signal is the reconstructed signal. Thereafter, the digital signal is converted via digital-to-analog converter  18  and is transmitted by transmitter  20  over antenna  22  to, for instance, a perceived threat such as a targeted threat. 
     It will be appreciated that if it is important that the signal be transmitted by transmitter  20  at a precise instant in time, then all of the elements including the digital processing unit, the digital-to-analog converter and the transmitter must have accurately controlled latencies or delays and must further have a precision clock in order to ensure that the transmission occurs at exactly the instant of time that it should. The result is that there must be real time processing throughout, including the digital processing circuit. 
     This means that very specialized hardware or real time software components must be introduced into the communications chain so as to ensure the exact time of the output from transmitter  20 . Not only must the clock to all of the digital elements be precise, in order to provide exceedingly accurate timing, one must have full knowledge of latency characteristics in any of the elements involved. 
     As mentioned hereinbefore, this means specialized attention to all of the elements in the communications chain including careful calibration and control to take into account all of the characteristics of the individual elements. 
     If for instance it is desired to send out a pulse of information having a start time that has a predetermined delay, for instance, from a waveform entering receiver  12 , as can be seen by pulse  30 , its delay from a pulse  32  which enters the receiver must be controlled through very accurate timing and delay control for the elements between receiver  12  and transmitter  20 . 
     What this means is that regardless of the type of communications chain established, the problem is that there must be realtime processing throughout, meaning that each and every element in the communications chain must have its function totally understood, totally calibrated and totally controlled so that the result of the cascading of the elements is the transmission of a signal at a precise time. 
     If rather than having a receiver  12 , another source of data such as for instance human speech is to be generated, if the speech is then to be processed digitally, this analog data is converted to digital data and processed in the appropriate manner. For time division multiple access communications channels, it will be appreciated that the analog data transmitted must be transmitted in a timeslot which is appropriate. Millisecond timing accuracies associated with standard clocks for digital processors are insufficient to maintain the analog data from one user in his or her particular timeslot. 
     In order to make certain that this is not the case, a great deal of effort to achieve precise timing synchronization is expended in each and every element of the communications chain so that the information is placed at the appropriate timeslot. 
     As can be seen, those elements which are critical to the transmission of data at a precise time are those indicated by bracket  34  to be those elements in the illustrated embodiment which are to have carefully controlled and accurate clocks so as to minimize any sources of error. Clearly, the digital processing portion of the communications chain is the most difficult element to control due to the specialized timing processing required. 
     Referring now to  FIG. 2 , in the subject invention, an off-the-shelf processor  40  is provided rather than the special purpose processor  16  in  FIG. 1 . Here the information to be transmitted is sampled by analog-to-digital converter  42 , with the digital data being processed by processor  40  using a system clock  44  that general need only have millisecond accuracies. The off-the-shelf processor can be any one of a number of garden-variety processors, with the system clock also being available commercially. 
     Processor  40  generates the data packets to be transmitted and also provides the packets with a time header such that each of the packets is time stamped. Here as can be seen, a packet  50  has a time stamp in header  52 , with data  54  existing below header  52 . 
     The time stamp specifies when the data should begin to be transmitted, with the accuracy determined by the accuracy of the time specified by the time stamp. 
     The result is a number of time stamped packets from processor  40  which are stored at a packet storage buffer  60  until such time as they are read out through a precision time output gate  62  provided with a precision time reference  64 . 
     In one embodiment, the buffer is read out at  61  to establish the time that the packet is supposed to be sent. This is compared at  65  with the current time, and when the two match, the packet is gated out by gate  62  at a rate determined by the precision time reference. 
     The buffer is thus read out at a precise time by gate  62  whose output is then coupled to a digital-to-analog converter  63  and thence to a transmitter  66 . 
     The precision time reference is accurate in one embodiment to nanoseconds and is provided in one instance through the use of a rubidium oscillator clock. This clock is an off-the-shelf product. 
     The precision time reference in one embodiment may be slaved to GPS timing signals by coupling a GPS receiver  68  to the precision time reference unit  64 , with the precise time then being referenced the time established by the GPS satellites. 
     It will be appreciated that a dominant source of timing error is associated with processor  40  which is an off-the-shelf product and which is not at all specially configured. The function of processor  40  is to generate data and time stamp the corresponding packets that are then stored and read out at precise times in accordance with the precision time output gate. 
     As will be seen, the dominant source of timing error associated with the off-the-shelf processor is removed from the precision time path through the use of the buffering and the precision time output gate, with the time delays and latencies associated with the digital-to-analog converter  63  and transmitter  66  being but a small percentage of the overall process. Moreover, time delays through the digital-to-analog converter and transmitter are quite easily controlled, are predictable and are thus taken into account in any calibration process. 
     One could consider that the precision time output gate along with the packet storage buffer and the digital-to-analog converter constitutes an interface card or device  70 , the characteristics of which are controlled by the precision time reference and the characteristics of the precision time output gate. 
     In short, by using a commercial off-the-shelf processor without having to take into account real time considerations and by removing it as the dominant source of timing error in the precision time path, it is possible to provide a communications system in which only a small fraction of the elements of the system need to have precisely timed components and in which only a small fraction of the components need to be carefully controlled in order to provide the real time output desired. 
     Having now described a few embodiments of the invention, and some modifications and variations thereto, it should be apparent to those skilled in the art that the foregoing is merely illustrative and not limiting, having been presented by the way of example only. Numerous modifications and other embodiments are within the scope of one of ordinary skill in the art and are contemplated as falling within the scope of the invention as limited only by the appended claims and equivalents thereto.