This application claims the benefit of Taiwan application Serial No. 105110028, filed Mar. 30, 2016, the subject matter of which is incorporated herein by reference.
The invention relates in general to an equalization enhancing module, a demodulation system and an equalization enhancing method, and more particularly to an equalization enhancing module, a demodulation system and an equalization enhancing method capable of improving a minimum mean square error (MMSE) equalizer.
Digital communication systems are extensively applied in various digital communication devices such as cell phones, set-up boxes (STBs), digital television sticks and wireless network cards. In general, a digital communication system includes a modulation system and a demodulation system. The modulation system modulates bits to be transmitted to transmission symbols, which are transmitted to a channel and then received as reception signals and demodulated by the demodulation system. A reception signal y received by the demodulation system may be represented as y=hs+n, where s represents a transmission symbol generated by the modulation system, h represents a channel response and n represents noise. After receiving the reception signal, the demodulation system utilizes an equalizer included in the demodulation system to eliminate the effect of the channel on the transmission symbol.
In known technologies, a zero forcing equalizer, being an equalizer having a low complexity level, multiplies the reception signal y by a reciprocal of the channel response (denoted as h−1). An output signal xZF of the zero forcing equalizer may be represented as xZF=h−1y=s+h−1n. As such, the zero forcing equalizer eliminates the effect of the channel on the transmission symbol. However, when the channel response is small, the zero forcing equalizer causes an issue of noise enhancement. To prevent the noise enhancement effect caused by the zero forcing equalizer, a minimum mean square error (MMSE) equalizer is one common solution in demodulation systems. An MMSE equalizer multiplies the reception signal y by
where σS2 and σN2 represent the energies of the transmission symbol and the noise, respectively. The output signal xMMSE of the MMSE equalizer may be represented as
Thus, regardless of whether the channel response is strong or weak, given that the received signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is high enough, i.e., when the reception signal energy h2σS2 is far greater than the noise energy
may approximate h−1, and the MMSE equalizer may approximate a zero forcing equalizer.
However, when the noise energy σN2 is stronger, the MMSE causes the energy of the output signal xMMSE to be reduced, in a way that the symbol determination accuracy of the demodulation system is lowered. That is, the reduced energy of the output signal xMMSE of the MMSE equalizer cause a symbol error rate (SER) and a corresponding bit error rate (BER) of the demodulation system to increase, hence degrading the system performance of the demodulation system.
Therefore, there is a need for a solution for improving the prior art.
The invention is directed to an equalization enhancing module, a demodulation system and an equalization enhancing method for overcoming issues of the prior art.
The present invention discloses an equalization enhancing module including: a multiplication unit, multiplying a plurality of equalized signals by a scaling coefficient to obtain a plurality of scaled signals; a determination unit, coupled to the multiplication unit, determining whether the plurality of scaled signals are located in a predetermined region to generate a plurality of determination results; a ratio calculating unit, coupled to the determination unit, calculating an inner ratio according to the plurality of determination results, wherein the inner ratio is associated with a ratio of the plurality of scaled signals located in the predetermined region; and a coefficient calculating unit, coupled to the ratio calculating unit, calculating the scaling coefficient according to the inner ratio.
The present invention further discloses a demodulation system including: an equalization module, equalizing a plurality of received signals to generate a plurality of equalized signals; a symbol determining module; and an equalization enhancing module, coupled between the equalization module and the symbol determining module. Further, the equalization enhancing module includes: a multiplication unit, multiplying the plurality of equalized signals by a scaling coefficient to obtain a plurality of scaled signals; a determination unit, coupled to the multiplication unit, determining whether the plurality of scaled signals are located in a predetermined region to generate a plurality of determination results; a ratio calculating unit, coupled to the determination unit, calculating an inner ratio according to the plurality of determination results; and a coefficient calculating unit, coupled to the ratio calculating unit, calculating the scaling coefficient according to the inner ratio. Further, the symbol determining module demodulates the plurality of scaled signals.
The present invention further discloses an equalization enhancing method including: multiplying a plurality of equalized signals by a scaling coefficient to obtain a plurality of scaled signals; determining whether the plurality scaled signals are located in a predetermined region to generate a plurality of determination results; calculating an inner ratio according to the plurality of determination results, wherein the inner ratio is associated with a ratio of the plurality of scaled signals located in the predetermined region; and calculating the scaling coefficient according to the inner ratio.
The above and other aspects of the invention will become better understood with regard to the following detailed description of the preferred but non-limiting embodiments. The following description is made with reference to the accompanying drawings.
More specifically, in the 1st time interval, the equalization enhancing module 10 may set the scaling coefficient g1 to 1 in advance, and the scaled signal gx1 is the equalized signal x1 (i.e., gx1=x1). In the 2nd time interval, the equalization module 10 may generate the scaling coefficient g2 according to the equalized signal x1, and multiply the equalized signal x2 by the scaling coefficient g2 to generate the scaled signal gx2 as gx2=g2x2, and so forth. In the nth time interval, the equalization enhancing module 10 may generate the scaling coefficient gn according to the equalized signals x1 to xn−1, and multiply the equalized signal xn by the scaling coefficient gn to generate the scaled signal gxn as gxn=gnxn.
It should be noted that, as the equalization module 12 is an MMSE equalizer, when the noise energy gets larger, the energy of the output signal (i.e., the equalized signals x1 to xn) from the equalization module 12 is smaller than the energies of the corresponding reception signals y1 to yn (i.e., |xk|2<|yk|2). To prevent the smaller energies of the equalized signals x1 to xn from causing an increased SER or BER of the demodulation system 1, the scaling coefficients g1 to gn generated by the equalization enhancing module 10 are used to compensate the reduced energy caused by the equalization module 12 (i.e., the MMSE), thereby further improving system performance.
Operation details of how the equalization enhancing module 10 generates the scaling coefficients g1 to gn (the scaling coefficient g1 is to 1 in advance) are given with reference to
More specifically, in the kth time interval, the determination unit 202 determines whether the constellation point corresponding to the scaled signal gxk is located in the predetermine region R. When the scaled signal gxk is located in the predetermine region R, the determination result hitk that the determination unit 202 correspondingly outputs for the scaled signal gxk is “1”. Conversely, when the scaled signal gxk is not located in the predetermine region R, the determination result hitk that the determination unit 202 correspondingly outputs for the scaled signal gxk is “0”. The method according to which the determination unit 202 determines whether the constellation point corresponding to the scaled signal gxk is located in the predetermined region R is not limited. In one embodiment, the determination unit 202 may determine whether an in-phase component and a quadrature component of the scaled signal gxk are in a predetermine range. When the in-phase component and the quadrature component of the scaled signal gxk are in the predetermined range, the determination unit 202 determines that the scaled signal gxk is located in the predetermined region R and outputs a determination result hitk=1, or else the determination unit 202 determines that the scaled signal gxk is not located in the predetermined region R and outputs a determination result hitk=0. For example, when the reception signals y1 to yn include quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) symbol signals, the determination unit 202 may determine whether an absolute value of the in-phase component (denoted as |Re{gxk}|) of the scaled signal gxk is smaller than a predetermined value d, and determine whether an absolute value of the quadrature-phase component (denoted as |Im{gxk}|) is smaller than the predetermined value d. When |Re{gxk}| is smaller than the predetermined value d and |Im{gxk}| is smaller than the predetermined value d, the determination unit 202 determines that the scaled signal gxk is located in the predetermined region R and outputs the determination result hitk=1, or else the determination unit 202 outputs the determination result hitk=0. The determination unit 202 generates the determination results hit1 to hitn, and transmits the determination results hit1 to hitn to the ratio calculating unit 204.
The ratio calculating unit 204 may calculate the inner ratios I1 to In using a recursive average method according to the determination results hit1 to hitn.
On the other hand, the averaging unit 300 may calculate the inner ratios I1 to In according to the average coefficient α and the determination results hit1 to hitn. More specifically, the averaging unit 300 includes a multiplier MP1, an adder AD1 and a buffer D1. The adder AD1 is coupled to the multiplexer MUX, the buffer D1 is coupled to the adder AD1, and the multiplier MP1 is coupled between the adder AD1 and the buffer D1. An example between the kth time interval and the (k+1)th time interval is given for illustrations below. In the kth time interval, an output from the buffer D1 is an inner ratio Ik (corresponding to a buffer inner ratio); the multiplier MP1 multiples the inner ratio Ik by a coefficient (1−α) to generate a multiplication result R1 and transmits the multiplication result R1 to the adder AD1. The multiplication result R1 may be represented as R1=(1−α)Ik. The adder AD1 adds the signal S and the multiplication result R1 to obtain an addition result R2. The addition result R2 may be represented as R2=αhitk+(1−α)Ik, and is the inner ratio Ik+1. Further, the ratio calculating unit 304 stores the addition result R2 in the buffer D1. Thus, in the (k+1)th time interval, the buffer D1 may output the inner ratio Ik+1. In other words, the averaging unit 300 of the ratio calculating unit 304 is for realizing Ik+1=αhitk+(1−α)Ik, where the integer k may be a positive integer between 1 and n−1. As such, after receiving the determination results hit1 to hitn in the 1st time interval to the (n−1)th time interval, the ratio calculating unit 304 may generate the inner ratios I1 to In in the 1st to the nth time intervals according to the determination results hit1 to hitn, where the inner ratio I1 may be set to a predetermined value in advance. Meanwhile, in the 1st to the nth time intervals, the ratio calculating unit 304 transmits the inner ratios I1 to In to the coefficient calculating unit 206.
In the 1st to the nth time intervals, the coefficient calculating unit 206 determines whether the inner ratios I1 to In are greater than a predetermined ratio IR, respectively, to calculate the scaling coefficients g2 to gn, such that the inner ratio gradually approximates (converges) to the predetermined ratio IR. Taking the inner ratio Ik received in the kth time interval for example, when the inner ratio Ik is greater than the predetermined ratio IR, the coefficient calculating unit 206 calculates the scaling coefficient gk+1 as the scaling coefficient gk (corresponding to the buffered scaling coefficient) added by a first predetermined value Δg1 (i.e., gk+1=gk+Δg1). Conversely, when the inner ratio Ik is smaller than the predetermined ratio IR, the coefficient calculating unit 206 calculates the scaling coefficient gk+1 as the scaling coefficient gk subtracted by a second predetermined value Δg2 (i.e., gk+1=gk−Δg2). Wherein, both of the first predetermined value Δg1 and the second predetermined value Δg2 are greater than zero.
Thus, the equalization enhancing module 10 may generate the scaling coefficients to compensate the reduced energy caused by the equalization module 12 (i.e., the MMSE).
On the other hand, the demodulation system 1 may demodulate a frame FR. More specifically, the frame FR may include a header sub-frame Header and a data sub-frame Data, as shown in
The operation process of how the equalization enhancing module generates the scaled signals may be further concluded to an equalization enhancing process 80, as shown in
In step 800, the equalization enhancing process 80 begins.
In step 802, equalized signals x1 to xn−1 are multiplied by a scaling coefficient g to obtain scaled signals gx1 to gxn−1.
In step 804, it is determined whether constellation points corresponding to the scaled signals gx1 to gxn−1 are located in a predetermined region R to generate determination results hit1 to hitn−1.
In step 806, an inner ratio In is calculated according to the determination results hit1 to hitn−1, wherein the inner ratio In is associated with a ratio of the scaled signals gx1 to gxn−1 located in the predetermined region R.
In step 808, the scaling coefficient g is adjusted according to the inner ratio In.
In step 810, the equalization enhancing process 80 ends.
In the equalization enhancing process 80, the value of the scaling coefficient g may vary as the time changes. That is, the value of the scaling coefficient in a 1st time interval to an nth time interval may be scaling coefficients g1 to gn, respectively. Further, in step 806, the equalization enhancing module may calculate the inner ratio In by a recursive average method, i.e., calculating the inner ratio In as
which is encompassed within the scope of the present invention.
Further, in step 808, the equalization enhancing module may determine whether the inner ratio In is greater than a predetermined ratio IR. When the inner ratio In is greater than the predetermined ratio IR, the equalization enhancing module calculates the scaling coefficient g as the scaling coefficient g—1 added by a first predetermined value Δg1 (i.e., g=g−+Δg1). Conversely, when the inner ratio In is smaller than the predetermined ratio IR, the equalization enhancing module calculates the scaling coefficient g as the scaling coefficient g−1 subtracted by a second predetermined value Δg2 (i.e., g=g−1−Δg2). Further, the equalization enhancing module may also calculate the scaling coefficient g as g=g−1+μ(In−IR), which is also encompassed within the scope of the present invention. Operation details of the remaining part of the equalization enhancing process 80 may be referred from the foregoing paragraphs, and shall be omitted herein.
Further, the equalization enhancing module is not limited to being realized by an ASIC.
It should be noted that, one person skilled in the art may modify the foregoing non-limiting embodiments used for illustrating the concept of the present invention. For example, although QPSK symbol signals are given as an example of the reception signals y1 to yn in the foregoing embodiments, the reception signals y1 to yn may also be quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM), phase shift keying (PSK) or amplitude phase shift keying (APSK) symbol signals, which are also encompassed within the scope of the present invention. Further, the equalization module 12 is not limited to being an MMSE equalizer. Given that the energy of the equalized signals generated by the equalization module 12 is not greater than the energy of the reception signals generated by the equalization module 12, the equalization enhancing module of the present invention may be applied to compensate the reduced energy caused by the equalization module 12 to further improve the system performance of the demodulation system 1.
It is known from the above that, in the present invention, the scaling coefficient is adjusted according to the ratio of the scaled signals located in a predetermined region to compensate a reduced energy caused by the equalization module (the MMSE equalizer), thereby further reducing the SER or BER and enhancing the performance of the demodulation system.
While the invention has been described by way of example and in terms of the preferred embodiments, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited thereto. On the contrary, it is intended to cover various modifications and similar arrangements and the scope of the appended claims therefore should be accorded the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all such modifications and similar arrangements and procedures.
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