Patent Description:
Frequency-hopping is a method of transmitting radio signals by rapidly changing the carrier frequency among many distinct frequencies occupying a large spectral band. In particular, in a frequency-hopping communication system, the available frequency bandwidth is divided into smaller sub-bands (hereinafter also referred to as a "band" or a "channel"). Signals rapidly change (also referred to as "hop") their carrier frequencies among the center frequencies of these channels in a predetermined order. The changes are controlled by a pattern known to both transmitter and the receiver. Interference at a specific frequency will only affect the portion of the signal in the same channel as the specific frequency. As such, frequency hopping is highly resistant to narrowband interference, and signals are difficult to intercept if the frequency-hopping pattern is not known.

However, due to intentional or non-intentional interference, the transmission quality of each channel in a frequency-hopping system may be different at different times, and a particular channel may have a much worse transmission quality than the rest of the channels during a particular time period, which could worsen the transmission quality of the whole communication system. Existing technologies are able to measure the qualities of the channels directly, such as based on measuring the signal-to-noise ratios, and when the measured quality of a particular channel is sufficiently poor, the effect of the low-quality channel may be mitigated by reducing the usage of such a channel and/or allocating communications to plurality of channels.

Examples for frequency hopping channel system and methods for mitigating interference in frequency hopping channel system are disclosed by in the following documents:.

<CIT> discloses channel qualification and selection in a multi radio system, using adaptive frequency hopping, by packet error rate , PER, measurement. The length of a packet is determined, the packet error rate is determined, an error threshold is determined based on the packet length, and if the error rate is more than the error threshold, the channel is removed from the set of active channels in the frequency hopping pattern, otherwise it is maintained.

This Summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form that is further described below in the Detailed Description.

Further embodiments of the inevention are defined by the dependent claims.

The principles described herein are related to a wireless digital communication system and/or a method for mitigating interference and/or estimating the communication qualities of each channel in a frequency-hopping communication system based on codeword metrics obtained during decoding of codewords.

The method includes decoding a plurality of code blocks into a plurality of codewords using a particular error control coding method. Each of the plurality of code blocks includes portions received from a plurality of channels in the frequency hopping channel system. For each decoded code block, one or more codeword metrics are determined based on cost of correcting errors during the decoding of the plurality of code blocks. According to the claimed invention, the codeword metrics include (<NUM>) a number of errors corrected during decoding of a code block, (<NUM>) a number of bits being flipped during decoding of a code block, (<NUM>) whether the code block is retransmitted, and/or (<NUM>) a number of iterations of an error correction process being performed during decoding of a codeword.

Based on the one or more codeword metrics of the plurality of codewords, one or more channel metrics of the plurality of channels are inferred. Based on the inferred channel metrics, a reliability metric of the channel is reduced, or symbols received from a particular channel are ignored. In some embodiments, the inferred channel metrics of a channel indicate a relative channel quality compared to an overall channel quality of all the plurality of channels.

In order to describe the manner in which the above-recited and other advantages and features can be obtained, a more particular description of the subject matter briefly described above will be rendered by reference to specific embodiments that are illustrated in the appended drawings. Understanding that these drawings depict only typical embodiments and are not, therefore, to be considered to be limiting in scope, embodiments will be described and explained with additional specificity and details through the use of the accompanying drawings in which:.

The principles described herein are related to wireless digital communication systems. In particular, the principles described herein are related to using codeword metrics of a forward error correction (FEC) decoder with respect to difficulty in decoding codewords to infer interference and/or estimate transmission quality in a particular channel among multiple frequency hopping channels.

In a communication link, an FEC encoder maps an information word (composed of bits) or sequence, and one or more error correction bits, into a codeword or coded sequence of bits according to an FEC scheme. A transmitter (including a modulator) arranges these bits and maps them into messages composed of symbols. These messages may be split up into multiple segments (also referred to as sub-messages), where the segments are divided up for transmission over a plurality of different frequency channels. A receiver (including a demodulator) receives and processes the sub-messages from the various channels, reassembles the sub-messages into a sequence, and produces estimates of the symbols.

The estimated symbols in the sub-messages or messages are then translated into sequences of bits, which may be based on a soft or a hard decision method. For each transmitted codeword, a sequence of bits (also referred to as a code block) is reconstructed from the translated symbols. During the transmission of the symbols, the frequency channels may corrupt some of those symbols. Thus, the estimated symbols may not be the original symbols that were transmitted by the transmitter, and the code blocks may not be the original codewords.

Fortunately, most or all of the errors that occurred during transmission may be corrected by an FEC decoder. The FEC decoder processes the code blocks to provide an estimate of the transmitted codeword. The decoding process may also provide metrics about the quality of the received symbols (hereinafter also referred to as "symbol metrics") and/or the accuracy of the estimated codeword (hereinafter also referred to as "codeword metrics"). These metrics may be cheap or free (i.e., requiring little or no additional computations) as often they are an indication of the number of errors corrected. Based on the quality of the received symbols and/or the accuracy of the estimated codewords, a channel metric processor is able to infer the channel qualities of the multiple frequency channels and/or detect interference. Note, the translation from symbols to bits may or may not take place in the FEC decoder.

In some embodiments, based on the symbol metrics of the symbols that were transmitted via a particular frequency channel, or codeword metrics of codewords that were at least partially transmitted via a particular channel, one or more channel metrics may be inferred. The channel metric of a particular channel may be compared with an average channel metric of all the channels (or an average codeword metric of all the codewords transmitted via all the channels) to determine a relative channel quality of the particular channel. Alternatively, the channel metric may be monitored over time to determine a change from a baseline average channel metric for that particular channel. When the relative quality of the particular channel is worse than a threshold (whether that be a fixed threshold or changing threshold), the system may determine an interference is present. As a result, embodiments may reduce or stop using the particular channel and/or allocate communications to different channels.

<FIG> illustrates an example of an environment of a wireless communication system <NUM>. The wireless communication system <NUM> includes one or more source devices <NUM>, and one or more destination devices <NUM> Note that while the system is shown as a point-to-point communication system, other embodiments may be implemented in mesh networks where communications pass between various intermediary nodes. Thus, communications are not necessarily direct, as shown in <FIG>. As illustrated, the source device <NUM> includes a transmitter <NUM> configured to send out a wireless signal having the destination device <NUM> as a destination. The destination device <NUM> includes a receiver <NUM> configured to receive the signal transmitted by the source device <NUM>. In some embodiments, each of the source devices <NUM> and destination devices <NUM> may be a mobile phone, a tablet, a laptop computer, a radio, or any object that is coupled to a communication circuitry and/or device, such as (but not limited to) a ground vehicle, an airplane, a watercraft, and/or a satellite.

In a wireless digital communication system, the transmitting and receiving of a signal in a link include many steps. <FIG> illustrates a functional block diagram of an example of a communications link <NUM>, including a transmitter <NUM> and a receiver <NUM>. The transmitter <NUM> includes a source coder <NUM>, an FEC encoder <NUM>, a modulator <NUM>, and a multiplexer <NUM>. The FEC encoder <NUM> is configured to add redundancy, for example, in a form for a forward error correction code, in order to provide information that can be used to correct to transmission errors introduced by the channel <NUM>. The receiver <NUM> includes a de-multiplexer <NUM>, a demodulator <NUM>, an FEC decoder <NUM>, and a source decoder <NUM>. The FEC decoder <NUM> is configured to eliminate most of the errors that may be present in the resulting bitstream. The FEC decoder <NUM> is also able to generate codeword metrics indicating the amount of error in a received block. As noted previously, this is cheaply obtained as it is essentially a measure of how much "work" the FEC decoder <NUM> needed to perform to correct to received code blocks to arrive at the correct codeword. As will be illustrated in more detail below, these codeword metrics can be used to infer the quality of the propagation channel, and indeed as will be illustrated in <FIG> below, to infer the quality of individual channels of the propagation channel, such as when different channels are used in a frequency hopping system such as that illustrated in <FIG>. Note, the functional blocks shown in <FIG> are oversimplified, and the separation of the functional blocks in embodiments are not necessarily the same as shown in <FIG>. One or more of these functional blocks in <FIG> may be combined into a single electronic device, including complex circuitry, one or more generic processors and/or storages that are configured to execute custom or generic firmware and/or software to achieve the desired results.

<FIG> illustrates a functional block diagram of a frequency hopping system <NUM> that implements the principles described herein. <FIG> is shown as a more simplified version of the systems in <FIG> to focus on the particularities of the FEC encoding and decoding, and how that functionality can be used to infer channel quality for different frequency channels. The frequency hopping system <NUM> includes a transmitter <NUM> and a receiver <NUM>. The transmitter <NUM> includes an FEC encoder <NUM> configured to encode digital information into codewords by encoding information words with redundant information to allow the FEC decoder <NUM> of the receiver <NUM> to detect a limited number of errors that may occur anywhere in the message, and often to correct these errors without retransmission. The encoded codewords are then modulated and multiplexed into signals having different frequencies. In particular, as noted previously, a particular codeword may be split up into different segments, such that different segments of the same codeword are transmitted over different channels, e.g., one or more of channels <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>. The ellipsis <NUM> represents that there may be any number of channels in the frequency hopping system <NUM>. As will be illustrated in more detail below, different codewords may be transmitted using different sets of channels. See e.g., <FIG> showing messages <NUM>, <NUM>, and <NUM> each having segments transmitted in different channels, and using different sets of channels for each codeword.

Notably, during the transmission of the signal, the channels <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM> will corrupt the transmitted signals. For example, a wireless radio channel may attenuate and distort the signals and add noise <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM> to the signals. The noise <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM> may be random noise, cosmic radiation, intentional interference from jammers, unintentional interference (such as from other radio transmissions), etc., and/or a combination thereof. The amount of noise is often measured by signal-to-noise ratios. The lower the signal-to-noise ratio, the more transmission errors are likely to occur, and more error corrections must be performed during the decoding process by the FEC decoder <NUM>. In particular, the various particular segments for each codeword will be reassembled into a code block which is then decoded by the FEC decoder <NUM> to attempt to recover the codeword.

In some embodiments, the FEC decoder <NUM> further includes a channel metric processor <NUM> configured to count the number for errors corrected during the decoding of the code block. The codeword metrics of the codewords that were transmitted via a particular channel can be used by the channel metric processor <NUM> to infer one or more channel metrics of the various channels <NUM>, <NUM>, and/or <NUM>. In particular, knowing the codeword metrics (i.e., how difficult it was to decode a particular codeword) for a plurality of codewords, and knowing what channels were used to transmit code blocks for those codewords, the channel metric processor <NUM> can indirectly infer channel metrics for individual channels to identify channel qualities.

In response to detecting an unacceptable channel quality as determined by some predetermined threshold, the decoder <NUM> or the receiver <NUM> may then perform actions to mitigate the effect of the particular channel <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>. In some embodiments, the receiver360 may notify the transmitter <NUM> about the interference in the particular channel <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, causing the transmitter <NUM> to reduce the usage of the particular channel and/or allocate data transmission to different channels. In some embodiments, the receiver <NUM> may reduce the reliability (e.g., a reliability metric) of the particular channel and possibly ignore the symbols from the particular channel during decoding.

In some embodiments, the communications between the source device that hosts the transmitter <NUM> and the destination device that hosts the receiver <NUM> are in both directions. In such a case, each source device and destination device have both an encoder and a decoder. In response to detecting interference in a particular channel <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM> by one of the decoders at the source and destination devices, one of the source or destination device may cause the other side or both sides to reduce the usage of the particular channel.

Note that inferring channel quality may occur over time based on collecting multiple codeword metrics. To prevent an accumulation of codeword and channel metrics from essentially causing a determination that all channels are of low quality and unsuitable for data transmission, some embodiments use relevant metrics compared to an overall channel quality (e.g., an average quality of all the channels). In some embodiments, a weighted average of codeword metrics and or channel metrics is used, where the weighting is performed based on time. That is, more recent codeword metrics and channel metrics have a higher weight than metrics that occurred more in the past. In this way, previous interference in a channel will not be weighted as high as current interference, and indeed such previous interference will have a decaying weight that eventually causes the interference to have little or no effect on determining channel quality.

<FIG> is a chart illustrating an example of a process of transmitting three messages <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM> in a frequency hopping system. Each message <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM> corresponds to a codeword. Referring back to <FIG>, the FEC encoder <NUM> maps an information word (composed of bits) or bit sequence into a codeword or coded sequence of bits. The modulator <NUM> arranges these bits and maps them into messages composed of symbols. According to the claimed invention, these messages are split up into multiple segments, each of which is transmitted over a frequency channel. As illustrated in <FIG>, messages <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM> are examples of these messages that are split up into multiple segments (also referred to as sub-messages).

The vertical axis represents the overall frequency band, which has been divided into multiple sub-bands (i.e., channels <NUM>-<NUM>). The horizontal axis represents a period of time, which is divided into periods <NUM>, <NUM>, and <NUM>, during which each of the three messages <NUM>, <NUM>, and <NUM> is being transmitted. As illustrated, the message <NUM> is transmitted during the time period <NUM>, message <NUM> is transmitted after the transmission of the message <NUM> during the time period <NUM>, and the message <NUM> is transmitted after the transmission of the message <NUM> during the time period <NUM>.

Further, each message <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM> has been divided into <NUM> sub-messages, and each of which is transmitted via a different channel selected from the sub-channels <NUM>-<NUM> at a particular sub-time interval within the time interval <NUM>, <NUM>, or <NUM>. In particular, the sub-messages of each message <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM> are transmitted via different channels at different sub-time intervals at a predetermined sequence.

For example, message <NUM> has been divided into sub-messages <NUM>-<NUM>. As illustrated, the sub-message <NUM> is first transmitted via the sub-channel <NUM> during the sub-time interval <NUM>-a; the sub-message <NUM> is then transmitted via the sub-channel <NUM> during the sub-time interval <NUM>-b; thereafter, the sub-message <NUM> is transmitted via the sub-channel <NUM> during the sub-time interval <NUM>-c, and so on and so forth. Similarly, each of the messages <NUM> and <NUM> is also divided into <NUM> sub-messages, and each of those sub-messages is also transmitted via one of the sub-channels <NUM>-<NUM> during a sub-time interval based on a predetermined sequence.

The receiver processes the symbols of the sub-messages/messages and translates the symbols into sequences of bits. Notably, the sequence of the different sub-channels that are used to transmit the sub-messages is known to a receiver. Thus, the receiver can concatenate the sub-messages into messages or concatenate the sequences of bits corresponding to sub-messages into code blocks corresponding to codewords. The translation from symbols (via soft decoding and/or hard decoding) to bits may take place inside or outside the FEC decoder. The decoding process may also provide metrics about the quality of the received symbols (i.e., symbol metrics) and/or the accuracy of the estimated codeword (i.e., codeword metrics).

For example, at any given time, each of the channels <NUM>-<NUM> may have different transmission qualities. Generally, a worse channel quality would result in more errors in the decoding process. The principles described herein cause the FEC decoder or the receiver to account for the errors that occurred during the decoding of each codeword. The decoding errors are then analyzed to obtain one or more statistical metrics for each channel <NUM>-<NUM>.

For example, for channel <NUM>, during the time period <NUM>-<NUM>, sub-messages in messages <NUM> and <NUM> were transmitted via the channel <NUM>. However, no sub-message in message <NUM> was transmitted via the channel <NUM> during the same time period. If errors were detected in the process of decoding messages <NUM> and <NUM>, but not message <NUM>, this indicates that the channel <NUM> may be of poor quality, or interference may be present in the channel <NUM> during the time period <NUM>-<NUM>.

As another example, for channel <NUM>, during the time period <NUM>-<NUM>, sub-messages in messages <NUM> and <NUM> were transmitted via the channel <NUM>. However, no sub-message in message <NUM> was transmitted in the channel <NUM>. If more errors were detected during the decoding of messages <NUM> and <NUM>, but not fewer errors were detected during the decoding of message <NUM>, this indicates that the channel <NUM> may be a bad channel, or interference may be present in the channel <NUM> during the time period <NUM>-<NUM>.

This process may repeat for each channel <NUM>-<NUM>, and one or more codeword metrics may be obtained based on the errors that occurred during the decoding of messages that at least partially transmitted via the corresponding channel. In some embodiments, the one or more codeword metrics of each channel includes a weighted average of multiple codeword metrics, where a greater weight is given to a codeword metric that is based on codewords received in a more recent time interval. In some embodiments, each of the plurality of codeword metrics is determined based on codewords received in each of multiple time intervals.

Although the method acts may be discussed in a certain order or illustrated in a flow chart as occurring in a particular order, no particular ordering is required unless specifically stated or required because an act is dependent on another act being completed prior to the act being performed.

<FIG> illustrates a flowchart of an example method <NUM> for indirectly detecting interference in a particular frequency hopping channel based on one or more codeword metrics associated with messages that were at least partially transmitted via the particular frequency hopping channel. The method <NUM> may be implemented at the frequency hopping system <NUM> of <FIG>, the receiver <NUM> of <FIG>. The method <NUM> includes receiving sub-messages via multiple frequency hopping channels (act <NUM>). Each of the sub-messages is transmitted via a particular frequency hopping channel. The method <NUM> also includes converting sub-messages into multiple code blocks (act <NUM>). Each of the code blocks corresponds to a codeword. The method <NUM> further includes decoding each of the code blocks into a code word based on a particular error control coding method (act <NUM>). Based on errors corrected during decoding of each of the code blocks, one or more codeword metrics are determined (act <NUM>). For each particular channel of the plurality of channels, one or more channel metrics is inferred based on the codeword metrics associated with codewords that were at least partially transmitted via the particular channel (act <NUM>). Based on the inferred channel metrics, a reliability metric of a particular channel is reduced, or symbols received via a particular channel is ignored during decoding of incoming code blocks (act <NUM>).

When information is transferred or provided over a network or another communications connection (either hardwired, wireless, or a combination of hardwired or wireless) to a computer, the computer properly views the connection as a transmission medium. Transmission media can include a network and/or data links which can be used to carry desired program code means in the form of computer-executable instructions or data structures and which can be accessed by a general purpose or special purpose computer.

Computer-executable instructions comprise, for example, instructions and data which cause a general-purpose computer, special purpose computer, or special purpose processing device to perform a certain function or group of functions.

Claim 1:
A method (<NUM>) for mitigating interference in a frequency hopping channel system based on codeword metrics obtained during decoding of code blocks, the method comprising:
decoding (<NUM>) a plurality of code blocks into a plurality of codewords using a particular error control coding method, each of the plurality of code blocks comprising portions received from a plurality of channels in the frequency hopping channel system;
for each decoded code block, determining (<NUM>) one or more codeword metrics based on cost of correcting errors during decoding of the plurality of code blocks;
inferring (<NUM>) one or more channel metrics of the plurality of channels based on the one or more codeword metrics of the plurality of codewords; and
based on the channel metrics, reducing (<NUM>) a reliability metric of a particular channel or ignoring incoming symbols received via a particular channel during decoding of code blocks;
wherein the one or more codeword metrics include at least whether a code block is retransmitted.