Abstract:
The present invention proposes a channel encoder, and a channel encoding method executed by the channel encoder comprising the steps of: (a), converting the serial data stream to be encoded into multiple parallel signals; (b). interleaving the multiple parallel signals; (c). according to predefined encoding rule, encoding the multiple parallel signals and interleaved multiple parallel signals separately to obtain encoded multiple parallel signals; and (d). transmitting the interleaved multiple parallel signals and the multiple parallel signals via multiple Tx antenna cyclically and alternately. The channel encoder according to the present invention can achieve better decoding performance at receiver due to the combination of Turbo encoding scheme.

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
       [0001]    The present invention relates generally to a method and apparatus for channel coding/decoding in wireless network, and more particularly, to a method and apparatus for spatial temporal Turbo channel coding/decoding. 
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
       [0002]    With the increasing popularization of mobile communication, the mobile communication service with only voice service can not satisfy the demands for information collection any more, and the mobile data communication service has exhibited its huge and promising prospect with its more convenient and more abundant information contents e.g. business and entertainment. Therefore, the high speed packet access service that supports high speed data transmission, especially the high speed downlink packet access (HSDPA) from a base station to a user terminal, has become one of key targets of future wireless communication systems. 
         [0003]    However, with the growing development of wireless communication, the available limited resources of frequency band, time slot and spreading codes are nearly consumed up and if the data transmission rate needs further enhancement, one solution is to appropriately utilize the resource of spatial field. Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) that was proposed recently is exactly the technique that utilizes multiple transmit and receive antennas to construct multiple parallel wireless channels in spatial field, so as to fully exploit the spatial resource to improve the data transmission speed. Among existing MIMO technologies, Bell Lab Layered Space Time (BLAST) technique is a typical one with the capability to dramatically improve data transmission speed. 
         [0004]    BLAST technique has multiple architectures, wherein the BLAST architecture without any channel coding can achieve the maximum utilization of spatial channels to transmit data thanks to no redundancy information in transmitted signal. However, it is pitiful that the quality of transmitted signal based on this BLAST architecture is not satisfactory. In order to improve QoS (Quality of Signal), channel coding and BLAST technique may be combined to realize multiple parallel transmissions and meanwhile guarantee the QoS to some extent. Nevertheless, the BLAST architecture depends on the utilization of non-correlation among spatial channels to demodulate multiple data, therefore the number of receive antennas in the receiver must be larger or equal to that of transmit antennas, only by which can the substream data based on the spatial characteristics of MIMO channel be separated. However, for user terminals in the receiving side, the number of the receive antenna is limited by weight, size and battery consumption requirement in the terminal, therefore normally cannot meet the requirements of BLAST technique. In many cases, there is only one receiver antenna provided. So, even though the BLAST technique can considerably improve the data transmission speed, it is not suitable to be used to provide HSDPA due to its excessive requirements for multiple antennas and multiple RF (Radio Frequency) units in the receiver. 
         [0005]    Except BLAST, other MIMO techniques for 3GPP system are also proposed recently, e.g., Per Antenna Rate Control (PARC), Rate Control Multipath Diversity (RC MPD) and Double Space Time Transmit Diversity Sub-Group Rate Control (DSTTD-SGRC), etc. However, similarly, all above MIMO techniques also require multiple receive antennas during terminal processing. In view of terminal implementation and cost, they are not suitable for downlink high speed transmission either. 
         [0006]    Based on the above analysis, although the above MIMO techniques can realize high-speed data transmission, their application fields are limited by the requirement of the number of receive antennas in user terminal. 
         [0007]    In order to solve the above problem, a solution is disclosed in the china patent application named “method and apparatus for spatial channel coding/decoding in parallel transmission” and filed by KONINKLIJKE PHILIPS ELECTRONICS N.V. on Aug. 9, 2004, Application Serial No. 200410056552.0, and incorporated herein by reference. According to the Spatial Channel Code (SCC) method proposed in the patent application, channel coding and multipath parallel architecture are combined to correlate multipath parallel signals and demodulate the multipath parallel signals in user terminal of the receiving side by inserting some redundancy information between the multipath parallel signals, so as to realize high speed data transmission under the condition of only one receiver antenna or the limited number of receiver antennas. 
         [0008]    When mainly applied to voice transmission, SCC can acquire better performance compared with other MIMO technologies. However, since SCC is still limited to the usage of convolutional coding, although its structure is relatively simple, its BER (Bit Error Rate) is nevertheless relatively high when carrying huge-bulk of high speed data traffic, and therefore QoS is considerably affected. 
         [0009]    Therefore, it is necessary to propose a better MIMO solution to ensure high transmission data rate and satisfactory QoS under the condition of only one receive antenna or the limited number of receive antennas. 
       OBJECT AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0010]    An object of the present invention is to provide a method and apparatus for spatial temporal Turbo channel coding/decoding in wireless network, which enables a user terminal employing the method and apparatus to realize both high speed transmission and satisfactory QoS simultaneously under the condition of only one receive antenna or the limited number of receive antennas. 
         [0011]    According to a channel coder of the present invention, the channel coding method executed by the channel coder, comprising the steps of: a). Converting serial signals to be encoded to multiple parallel signals; (b). Interleaving the multiple parallel signals; (c). Encoding the multiple parallel signals and the interleaved multiple parallel signals respectively according to a predefined coding rule, to acquire encoded multiple parallel signals; and (d). Transmitting the encoded multiple parallel signals and the multiple parallel signals circularly and alternately via multiple transmit antennas. 
         [0012]    According to a channel decoder of the present invention, the channel decoding method executed by the channel decoder comprising the steps of: a). Demultiplexing encoded multiple parallel signals received via at least one receive antenna; b). Performing channel estimation on multiple wireless channels on which the encoded multiple parallel signals are transmitted; and (c). Performing recursive decoding on the demultiplexed encoded multiple parallel signals by using the channel estimation result and according to a predefined decoding rule. 
         [0013]    The method and apparatus for channel coding/decoding in the present invention can achieve better decoding performance due to the combination of Turbo encoding scheme. 
         [0014]    Other objects and attainments together with a fuller understanding of the invention will become apparent and appreciated by referring to the following description and claims taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
         [0015]    Detailed descriptions will be given below to the present invention in conjunction with specific embodiments and accompanying drawings, in which: 
           [0016]      FIG. 1  is a schematic diagram illustrating the structures of the transmitter and receiver adopting spatial temporal Turbo Channel Coding/Decoding according to one embodiment of the present invention, wherein the transmitter has multiple transmit antennas while the receiver has only one receive antenna; 
           [0017]      FIG. 2  is a functional block diagram illustrating a STTCC encoder according to the present invention; 
           [0018]      FIG. 3  is a block diagram illustrating the detailed structure of a STTCC encoder designed according to the functional block diagram shown in  FIG. 2   
           [0019]      FIG. 4  is a functional block diagram illustrating a STTCC decoder corresponding to the STTCC encoder shown in  FIG. 2   
           [0020]      FIG. 5  is a functional block diagram illustrating another STTCC decoder corresponding to the STTCC encoder shown in  FIG. 2   
           [0021]      FIG. 6  is a schematic diagram illustrating the structure of the transmitter and receiver adopting spatial temporal Turbo Channel Coding/Decoding according to another embodiment of the present invention, wherein both the transmitter and the receiver have multiple antennas. 
           [0022]      FIG. 7  is a schematic diagram illustrating the structure of the multiple antennas transmitter that adopts per-antenna group rate control scheme according to the present invention. 
           [0023]      FIG. 8  is a graph illustrating the simulation results for the system adopting STTCC according to the present invention and the existing PARC system. 
       
    
    
       [0024]    Throughout the drawing Figures, like reference numerals will be understood to refer to like parts and components. 
       DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
       [0025]    In 3GPP HSPDA system, Turbo encoding technology is widely regarded as a channel encoding scheme. Combination of Turbo encoding and MIMO such as PARC or MPD has witnessed broad applications in the HSPDA system. 
         [0026]    The present invention proposes a Spatial Temporal Turbo Channel Coding (STTCC) method for 3GPP HSPDA system, which can effectively combine Turbo encoding and MIMO together. 
         [0027]    The case where the receiver in receiving side has only one receive antenna in 3GPP FDD system will be taken as an example below to detailedly describe the STTCC method proposed by the present invention and its applications in the system. 
         [0028]      FIG. 1  is a schematic diagram illustrating the structure of the transmitter (e.g. base station) and the receiver (e.g. user terminal) adopting the STTCC method proposed by the present invention. In the transmitter  500 , a high speed data stream to be transmitted will be sent to a STTCC encoder  510  for spatial temporal Turbo channel encoding, wherein the detailed structure of the STTCC encoder  510  will be depicted in  FIG. 2-4 . The high speed data stream to be transmitted will be processed in the STTCC coder  510  and converted into multiple parallel encoded substreams, and then the encoded signals of each parallel substream will sequentially pass through an interleaver  102  for interleaving, a spreading unit  103  for spreading (e.g. spreading by orthogonal variable spreading factor (OVSF) code), a multiplexer  105  for combining multiple channels, a scrambling unit  106  for scrambling the combined signals, a pulse shaper  107  for pulse shaping the scrambled signals and a RF unit  108  for modulating to form multiple parallel RF signals and will be finally transmitted by multiple antennas. 
         [0029]    The above multiple parallel RF signals reach the receiver  600  at user terminal via wireless channels. In the embodiment, the receiver  600  has only one receive antenna. The signals received by the receiver  600  are the superposition of all the multiple signals transmitted via multiple parallel spatial channels. The RF signals received by the antenna are converted into baseband signals in a RF unit  208  and sent to a root raised cosine (RRC) filter and oversampling unit  206  for converting analog signals into discrete signals. The obtained discrete signals will then sequentially pass through a de-spreading and de-scrambling unit  204  for de-spreading and de-scrambling and a de-interleaver  202  for de-interleaving before sent to a STTCC decoder  610 . The channel estimation unit  220  performs estimation on channel characteristics of the multiple parallel spatial channels according to pilot signals received. Subsequently, the STTCC encoder  610  utilizes the channel characteristics of the multiple channels estimated by the channel estimation unit  220  to perform corresponding decoding on the summed signals that are de-interleaved, so that the summed multiple parallel signals are decoded respectively and simultaneously the multiple parallel signals are converted into a serial data stream, namely the data required by user. The detailed structure and processing of the STTCC decoder  610  will be described below in conjunction with  FIGS. 5-6 . 
         [0030]      FIG. 2  is a functional block diagram illustrating the above STTCC decoder  510 . Wherein, it is assumed that the required data rate is L bit/symbol. As shown in  FIG. 2 , the information bit vector B=[b 1 , . . . , b L ] outputted after a high-speed data stream to be transmitted undergoes serial/parallel (S/P) conversion goes through three paths respectively. 
         [0031]    In the first path, the information bit vector B is directly sent into a modulation mapping unit  41 . Through modulation mapping, Φ[B]=[s 1 , . . . , s U ] can be utilized to acquire corresponding systematic bits, where Φ[•] is a function of mapping binary integer values into the transmitted symbols. For instance, when quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) modulation is used, U=L/2. Systematic bits can be used to enable decoder to achieve better performance. 
         [0032]    In the second path, the information bit vector B is firstly coded by an recursive encoder  21  and then D=[d 1 , . . . , d M ] is outputted. Subsequently if the rate matching is required, D will be converted to C=[c 1 , . . . , c p ] by a rate matching unit  31 . Wherein, the rate matching may be a puncturing processing at higher data rate, or a padding processing at lower data rate. According to the system requirement for data transmission rate, the puncturing/padding processing on the outputs of the recursive encoders  21 ,  22  carried out by the rate matching units  31 ,  32  includes deleting/adding bit symbols at some specified locations for rate matching purpose. Of course, if the requirement for data transmission rate is relatively low/high, the outputs of the recursive encoders  21 ,  22  are sent directly to subsequent units for processing without being carried out the puncturing/padding process. Finally, after modulation mapping, Φ[C]=[s u+1 , . . . , s N ] is utilized to obtain the encoded parity bits symbol, where N denotes the number of transmit antennas. 
         [0033]    In the third path, the information bit vector B is firstly interleaved by an interleaving unit  10 , and then similar to the processing of the second path, sequentially passes through the recursive encoder  22 , the rate matching unit  32  and the modulation mapping unit  43  before the encoded parity bits symbol [s′ u+1 , . . . , s′ N ] is obtained eventually. 
         [0034]    The encoded symbols outputted from the second path and the third path are selectively outputted by a multiplexer  50  according to different times. For instance, at time t 1 , [s u+1 , . . . , s N ] is outputted by the multiplexer  50 , while at next time t 2 , [s′ u+1 , . . . , s′ N ] is outputted by the multiplexer  50 . 
         [0035]    Finally, [s 1 , . . . , s N ] is transmitted alternately through a cycle switch  60  via different transmit antennas. 
         [0036]    The above recursive encoders  21 ,  22  have the same generation matrix. The interleaving unit  10  carries out odd-even symbol interleaving process, which maps even symbols to even symbol positions, and odd ones to odd ones. Here, one symbol means L bits in vector B. 
         [0037]    In order to obtain different structures of decoder, a de-interleaving unit may be added to the STTCC encoder at transmitter. As shown in  FIG. 2 , in the third path, the encoded symbol S=Φ[C′]=[s′ u+1 , . . . , s′ N ] outputted from the modulation mapping unit  43  may be de-interleaved by a de-interleaving unit  70  and then sent to the multiplexer  50 . 
         [0038]      FIG. 3  is the detailed structure of the STTCC encoder designed based on the general structure of the STTCC encoder shown in  FIG. 2 . In order to simply the illustration to reflect the design concept more clearly, it is assumed that the number of transmit antennas is 2, the modulation mode is QPSK and the code rate is ½, the structure of the STTCC encoder is hereafter shown in  FIG. 3 . Wherein path  1  is used to process b 1  and b 2  so as to obtain systematic bits symbol, and no encoder is used on the path. Path  2  carries out recursive encoding on b 1  and b 2  respectively. Since the code rate is ½, the processing of the puncturing/padding unit  31 ′ in the path may be not required in the embodiment. Similarly to path  2 , path  3  performs respectively recursive encoding on b 1  and b 2  processed by the interleaving unit  10 , and the processing of the puncturing/padding unit  32 ′ in the path may be not required. The symbol s 2  outputted selectively by the multiplexer  50  from the parity bits outputted from path  2  and path  3  and the symbol s 1  outputted from path  1  are fed to the cycle switch  60 , and eventually transmitted via two transmit antennas alternately, that is, at a time the symbol s 1  is transmitted via the first transmit antenna, and the symbol s 2  via the second transmit antenna; at next time, the symbol s 1  is transmitted via the second transmit antenna, and the symbol s 2  via the first transmit antenna Finally, the symbol on each path is transmitted via each of transmit antennas. 
         [0039]      FIGS. 4 and 5  show respectively the structure of the STTCC decoders corresponding to the STTCC encoders with a de-interleaving unit  70  and without a de-interleaving unit  70 . Wherein, the decoding units in the STTCC decoder are the symbol MAP (Maximum A Posteriori) decoders  91 ,  92 , which employ an iterative algorithm to perform decoding on relating code sequences. 
         [0040]    Specifically, as shown in the  FIG. 4 , after separated by a demultiplexer (DEMUX)  80 , the received signals pass through a symbol MAP decoder  91 , an interleaving unit  121 , a symbol MAP decoder  92  sequentially and then go back the symbol MAP decoder  91  via a de-interleaving unit  111  to be decoded circularly and iteratively. After decoded iteratively several times, the better performance may be achieved. Wherein, the decoded signals outputted by the symbol MAP decoder  92  are sent to the symbol MAP decoder  91  as feedback information after de-interleaved by the de-interleaving unit  111 , and the symbol MAP decoder  91  decodes the separated received signals based on the feedback information; the decoded signals outputted by the symbol MAP decoder  91  are sent to the symbol MAP decoder  92  as feedback information after interleaved by the interleaving unit  121 , and the symbol MAP decoder  92  decodes the separated signals from the interleaving unit  122  based on the feedback information, so as to realize iterative decoding between the symbol MAP decoders  91  and  92 . Finally, outputs of the symbol MAP decoder  92  pass through the de-interleaving unit  112  to obtain the decoded signals. Wherein the symbol MAP decoders  91  and  92  perform corresponding decoding by the channel characteristics obtained by the channel estimation unit  220 . 
         [0041]    As shown in  FIG. 5 , if there is not the de-interleaving unit  50  in the corresponding STTCC encoder, for the STTCC decoder, since symbol level code sequences are processed and outputted by the symbol MAP decoders  91 ,  92 , the corresponding Sym/Bit conversion unit and Bit/Sym conversion unit are needed between the symbol MAP decoders  91 ,  92  and the de-interleaving unit  113 /interleaving unit  123 , so that the de-interleaving unit  113  and interleaving unit  123  can conduct bit level interleaving. 
         [0042]    The case where the transmitter  500  has multiple transmit antennas while the receiver  600  has only one receive antenna is described above in conjunction with  FIG. 1-5 . Apparently, the method proposed by the present invention is not limited to the case, and can be applied to the case where the receiver has multiple antennas. 
         [0043]      FIG. 6  shows the structure of the transmitter with multiple transmit antennas and the receiver with multiple receive antennas according to the present invention. Compared with  FIG. 1 , the receiver  700  in  FIG. 6  has multiple receive antennas, and accordingly includes multiple receive processing paths. The structure of each receive processing path is the same as that of the single receiving antenna shown in  FIG. 1 , including a RF unit  208 , a RRC filter and oversampling unit  206 , a de-spreading and de-scrambling unit  204 , a de-interleaver  202  and a channel estimation unit  220 . Both the received signals processed by each of the receive processing paths and the channel characteristics estimated by the channel estimation unit  220  in each of the receive processing paths are sent to the STTCC decoder  710  for decoding. Different from the single receiving antenna, when the spatial channel decoding structure  710  performs decoding, it may weigh and sum up multiple path received signals in the symbol MAP decoding units to get the optimal decoded signals. It is obvious that the receiving diversity gain can be improved by using multiple antennas in receiver and the signals&#39; BER can be reduced. Therefore, when the receiver has multiple receive antennas, the code rate of STTCC can be increased to further improve the transmission data rate. 
         [0044]    In order to enable the transmission data rate to adapt flexibly the dynamic channel environment by the feedback information at receiving side, so as to achieve higher data transmission throughput, the rate control is applied widely to the MIMO solution in 3GPP HSDPA system. In the present invention, the rate control of the systems adopting STTCC can be implemented by the following schemes. 
         [0045]    In the first scheme, the data transmission rate is control by using the rate matching of the STTCC encoder. In practical applications, the structure of STTCC may be designed based on the requirements of data transmission rate and the number of real transmit (Tx) antennas and receive (Rx) antennas. Table 1 lists the maximum code rate and spectrum efficiency of STTCC under different antenna configurations and modulation modes. From the table, it is noticed that the appropriate selection of the STTCC structure based on the requirements of Tx antenna, data transmission rate and modulation mode in practical systems, can achieve higher rate data transmission under the limited conditions of user terminals. 
         [0000]    
       
         
               
             
               
               
               
               
               
             
           
               
                 TABLE 1 
               
             
             
               
                   
               
               
                 STTCC modulation mode, code rate and spectrum efficiency 
               
               
                 under different Tx and Rx antennas configuration. 
               
             
          
           
               
                   
                   
                   
                   
                 Spectrum 
               
               
                   
                   
                   
                   
                 efficiency 
               
               
                   
                 (Tx, Rx) 
                 Code rate 
                 Modulation mode 
                 (bit/s/Hz) 
               
               
                   
                   
               
               
                   
                 (2, 1) 
                 ½ 
                 QPSK 
                 2 
               
               
                   
                 (2, 1) 
                 ½ 
                 16 QAM 
                 4 
               
               
                   
                 (4, 1) 
                 ½ 
                 QPSK 
                 4 
               
               
                   
                 (4, 1) 
                 ½ 
                 16 QAM 
                 8 
               
               
                   
                   
               
             
          
         
       
     
         [0046]    In the second scheme, the Per Antenna Group Rate Control technique is adopted. As shown in  FIG. 7 , multiple transmit antennas and corresponding transmit processing paths in the transmitter are divided into two groups, namely transmit antenna groups  500   a  and  500   b , each of which comprises a STTCC encoder. After demultiplexed by a demultiplexer (DEMUX)  301 , the high-speed data stream to be transmitted is sent to the STTCC encoders I and II in the transmit antenna groups  500   a ,  500   b  respectively. The transmitter also comprises a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) selecting unit  302 , which is used to select modulation and encoding schemes of the STTCC encoder I and II based on the Channel Quality Indication (CQI) from a user equipment (UE), for example, selecting QPSK (or 8PSK or 16PSK) to transmit data based on the condition of the data rate fed back from UE (namely, the condition of wireless environment where UE resides). 
         [0047]      FIG. 7  shows the case of only two transmit antenna groups in the per antenna group rate control scheme, but in practical applications, the different number of transmit antenna groups may be selected and adopted according to different system requirements. The grouping method of the transmit antenna groups in the per antenna group rate control scheme according to the present invention can be further divided into two cases to discuss. 
         [0048]    In the first case, when the receiver has only one receive antenna, each transmit antenna group uses a different spreading code so as to distinguish the different transmit antenna groups. Under this condition, the transmit antennas may be grouped freely according to practical requirements. 
         [0049]    In the second case, when the receiver has multiple receive antennas, each transmit antenna group use the same spreading code and descrambling code, and the multiple receiver antennas distinguish different transmit antennas groups based on the spatial channel characteristics of MIMO. Under this condition, the number of transmit antenna groups should be less than or equal to the number of receive antennas. Besides, theoretically speaking, in a case where there are multiple receive antennas, the different transmit antenna groups may also be distinguished by the combination of different spreading codes or descrambling codes, under this condition, the number of transmit antenna groups is not limited to the number of receive antennas. 
         [0050]    According to the above detailed description of the embodiment of the present invention in conjunction with the Figures, it is concluded that compared with the SCC technology, the STTCC technology proposed by the present invention can achieve better decoding performance in the receiver side due to the combination of Turbo encoding structure. 
         [0051]    In existing technologies like PARC for the 3GPP HSPDA system, since the transmit path of each transmit antenna in PARC uses an independent Turbo encoder, it is impossible to utilize transmission diversity in the system. However, in the STTCC technology proposed by the present invention, each information bit will be transmitted via the transmit path of each transmit antenna, therefore the better performance may be achieved under the same frequency efficiency. 
         [0052]    In order to verify the advantage of the STTCC technology proposed by the present invention over PARC, the scheme adopting STTCC and the one adopting PARC are simulated by the parameters shown in table 2, and the simulation results are shown in  FIG. 8 . It can be found that under BLER is 10-2, the Ior/Ioc (i.e., the ratio of the average power of all transmitted signals to the average power of all noises and interferences in the current cell and neighboring cells) of the scheme adopting STTCC is about 2 dB lower than that of the one adopting PARC. 
         [0000]    
       
         
               
             
               
               
             
           
               
                 TABLE 2 
               
             
             
               
                   
               
               
                 simulation parameters 
               
             
          
           
               
                 Parameter/feature 
                 Value/description 
               
               
                   
               
               
                 Code rate 
                 3.84 MHz 
               
               
                 Modulation mode 
                 QPSK 
               
               
                 Spreading factor 
                 16  
               
               
                 Channel Number 
                 10  
               
               
                 Timeslot 
                 3 
               
               
                 Code length (ns) 
                 260  
               
               
                 Channel Encoder 
                 PARC: Concatenated Turbo encoder, 
               
               
                   
                 code rate ½; 
               
               
                   
                 STTCC: code rate ½, increasing 
               
               
                   
                 de-interleaving unit 
               
               
                 Decoding iterative number 
                 4 
               
               
                 Interleaver 
                 Random interleaving 
               
               
                 Tx 
                 2 
               
               
                 Rx 
                 2 (PARC); 1 (STTC) 
               
               
                 Synchronization 
                 Ideal synchronization 
               
               
                 Service mapping 
                 The combination of multiple codes and 
               
               
                   
                 multiple timeslots. 
               
               
                 Sampling number per ship 
                 4 
               
               
                   
               
             
          
         
       
     
         [0053]    Moreover, the rate control may be realized flexibly to facilitate the practical applications according to the STTCC method and system proposed by the present invention. 
         [0054]    It is to be understood by those skilled in the art that the spatial temporal channel coding method and apparatus disclosed in present invention may be made of various modifications without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.