The present invention is directed, in general, to equalization during decoding of wireless signals and, more specifically, to adaptive inverse channel estimation for frequency domain equalization in a manner suitable for implementation within a single integrated circuit multi-standard decoder.
Two distinct standards for digital television (DTV) broadcasting modulation have been regionally adopted: the United States selected vestigial sideband modulation (VSB) with eight discrete amplitude levels (8-VSB) as promulgated by the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) digital television standard (ATSC Document A/53, Sep. 16, 1995) while Europe, Australia, and other regions selected Digital Video Broadcasting-Television (DVB-T) coded orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (COFDM) according to “Digital Video Broadcasting: Framing Structure, Channel Coding and Modulation for Digital Terrestrial Television,” ETSI 300 744 (March 1997). These standards cover, respectively, single carrier and multi-carrier systems.
Comparative block diagrams for typical implementations of integrated circuit vestigial sideband and orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) demodulators of the type employed for these two standards are illustrated respectively in
Two possibilities exist for algorithmic-level unification of the VSB and OFDM standards, each requiring modification of the current algorithms implementing the respective standards. First, a time domain equalizer may be employed for OFDM, with the channel estimation and correction units for that standard being replaced with a time domain equalizer which is then mapped onto the current VSB equalizer hardware. However, qualitative observations indicate that such a technique will make effective use of the pilot carriers for the OFDM standard difficult, such that the technique may not result in performance comparable to the existing OFDM algorithm.
The second approach, employed by the present invention, is to utilize a frequency domain (FD) equalizer for VSB so that the equalizer portion may be mapped onto the OFDM hardware. A block diagram for a generalized frequency domain equalizer for single carrier systems is illustrated in FIG. 11. Signals received at the input 1101 to frequency domain equalizer 1100 are first processed by a serial-to-parallel converter (S/P) 1102 which overlaps M samples. A fast Fourier transform (FFT) unit 1103 then converts the digital data stream to the frequency domain, with the output of the FFT unit 1103 being multiplied by an inverse channel estimate from estimator unit 1104. The resulting equalized output of signal multiplier 1105 is then converted back to the time domain utilizing an inverse fast Fourier transform (IFFT) unit (1106) and converted to a serial signal utilizing parallel-to-serial (P/S) converter 1107, which discards M samples.
The primary differences between implementations of frequency domain equalizers of the type illustrated in
One typical adaptive frequency domain equalization technique, illustrated in
One drawback to this approach for adaptive inverse channel estimation lies in the poor tracking performance due to the loop delay introduced by the two FFT operations within the loop of the channel estimator 1104. Another disadvantage is the integrated circuit area cost associated with the two FFT operations.
There is, therefore, a need in the art for a frequency domain equalizer which reduces the number of FFT operations required during inverse channel estimation but enables the equalizer portion of a VSB channel decoder to be mapped onto OFDM hardware within a single integrated circuit multi-standard channel decoder.
To address the above-discussed deficiencies of the prior art, it is a primary object of the present invention to provide, for use in a single integrated circuit multi-standard demodulator, an adaptive inverse channel estimator for frequency domain equalization which employs a recursive least square cost function in estimating the inverse channel from the received signal and an error estimate. Utilizing a diagonal correlation matrix, the solution to may be determined utilizing fewer computational resources than required by conventional frequency domain equalizers, shifting from a computational intensive to memory intensive implementation. The memory requirement is fully satisfied by memory available within conventional OFDM decoders, and the necessary computational resources may be readily mapped to the resources available within such decoders, improving integrated circuit cost-effectiveness of the multi-standard demodulator.
The foregoing has outlined rather broadly the features and technical advantages of the present invention so that those skilled in the art may better understand the detailed description of the invention that follows. Additional features and advantages of the invention will be described hereinafter that form the subject of the claims of the invention. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that they may readily use the conception and the specific embodiment disclosed as a basis for modifying or designing other structures for carrying out the same purposes of the present invention. Those skilled in the art will also realize that such equivalent constructions do not depart from the spirit and scope of the invention in its broadest form.
Before undertaking the DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION below, it may be advantageous to set forth definitions of certain words or phrases used throughout this patent document: the terms “include” and “comprise,” as well as derivatives thereof, mean inclusion without limitation; the term “or” is inclusive, meaning and/or; the phrases “associated with” and “associated therewith,” as well as derivatives thereof, may mean to include, be included within, interconnect with, contain, be contained within, connect to or with, couple to or with, be communicable with, cooperate with, interleave, juxtapose, be proximate to, be bound to or with, have, have a property of, or the like; and the term “controller” means any device, system or part thereof that controls at least one operation, whether such a device is implemented in hardware, firmware, software or some combination of at least two of the same. It should be noted that the functionality associated with any particular controller may be centralized or distributed, whether locally or remotely. Definitions for certain words and phrases are provided throughout this patent document, and those of ordinary skill in the art will understand that such definitions apply in many, if not most, instances to prior as well as future uses of such defined words and phrases.
For a more complete understanding of the present invention, and the advantages thereof, reference is now made to the following descriptions taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein like numbers designate like objects, and in which:
Those skilled in the art will perceive that
The output of FFT unit 203 is multiplied by signal multiplier 204 with Gk, an N size row vector containing the frequency bins of the inverse channel estimate {G(n,k)}, to produce Yk, an N size row vector containing the equalized frequency domain output {Y(n,k)}. The equalized frequency domain output may therefore be described as:
Yk=GkXk
The frequency domain inverse channel estimate Gk is obtained in the present invention by finding the value of Gk which minimizes a modified version of the time domain recursive least square (RLS) cost function (selected principally to obtain the tracking performance advantage of time domain RLS systems) applied to the frequency domain data:
where El is the frequency domain error vector defined by El=Sl−GkXl, Sk is an N size row vector containing the frequency domain representation of the transmitted VSB source signal (which is assumed to be known), ∥E∥2=EEH (where the superscriptH denotes transposed complex conjugate), and λ is a positive constant known as the forgetting factor and having a value constrained by 0<λ<1.
The minimum of the cost function Jk is identified by finding the value Gk which satisfies the following partial derivative:
In order to simplify further analysis, a correlation matrix Rk of the input signal Xk is defined:
together with a cross-correlation vector Pk between the input signal Xk and the desired signal Sk:
Utilizing these two correlation values within the cost function Jk, and after further simplification, the cost function Jk may be expressed as:
Since Rk is a diagonal matrix and Pk is a vector, the partial differentiation of equation (1) with respect to the elements of Gk yields:
The optimum value of Gk is then obtained from the solution of the set of equations GkRk−Pk=0, the solution to which yields
Gk=PkRk−1. (2)
Because Pk=λPk−1+SkXkH, and assuming that {overscore (Ek)}=Sk−Gk−1Xk is a prior estimate of the error Ek, the cross-correlation vector Pk=λPk−1+{overscore (Ek)}XkH+Gk−1∥Xk∥2 may be written as
Pk=λ(Gk−1Rk−1)+{overscore (Ek)}XkH+Gk−1∥Xk∥2
because Pk−1=Gk−1Rk−1. Substitution of this expression for the cross-correlation vector Pk in equation (2), with further simplification, yields
Gk=Gk−1(λRk−1+∥Xk∥2)Rk−1+{overscore (Ek)}XkHRk−1. (3)
However, where Rk−1 is initialized with a suitable constant, the correlation matrix Rk may also be described by the following recursive equation:
Rk=λRk−1+∥Xk∥2. (4)
Use of this substitution in equation (3), after further simplification, results in
Gk=Gk−1+{overscore (Ek)}XkHRk−1. (5)
The equalized frequency domain output Yk from signal multiplier 204 is input into IFFT unit 205 for conversion to the time domain. The output of IFFT unit 205 is passed to a discard unit 206, which discards M samples and passes the remaining samples to a trellis decoder (Viterbi) unit 207 which generates the decoded output 208 as well as tentative decisions 209 regarding the error. Error is calculated within error unit 210 in the time domain utilizing the conversion of the equalized frequency domain output Yk from IFFT unit 205, then converted back into the frequency domain by FFT unit 211. The converted error is then employed by adaptive RLS inverse channel estimator 212 to compute the inverse channel estimate Gk.
Depending on the convergence status, error is calculated by error unit 210 utilizing the training sequence, blind algorithms, and/or the tentative decisions 209 from the trellis decoder 207. The above analysis of adaptive inverse channel estimation assumed that the transmitted and error sequences are a priori known, while in practice only the portion of the transmitted sequence is known and the error sequence is not often known. Accordingly, stochastic techniques must be employed to obtain equivalent error. Utilization of other techniques, such as constant modulus algorithm (CMA) and decision directed techniques, to calculate a substitute error may be accommodated by modifying equation (5) to
Gk=Gk−1+μEkX*kRk−1 (6)
where μ is a positive constant controlling the adaptation speed and excess mean-square error (MSE).
In the case of VSB, the time distance between successive training sequences (training signals) is so far apart that other techniques must be employed to calculate the error in between training sequences. Depending on the severity of the inter symbol interference (ISI), blind algorithms and decision directed algorithms may be employed to calculate an equivalent error which may be substituted for the actual error.
A block delay unit 213 is also inserted within frequency domain equalizer 200 to reflect the implementation related estimator loop delay (i.e., delay relating to IFFT unit 205, error unit 210 and FFT unit 211). The inverse channel estimate Gk is therefore updated utilizing delayed versions of frequency domain input Xk and error Ek (and correlation matrix Rk employed in calculating error Ek.
Rn,k=λRn,k−1+∥Xn,k∥2 (7)
and
Gn,k=Gn,k−1+μEn,kX*n,kRn,k−1, (8)
where Rn,k, Xn,k, Gn,k, and En,k are the diagonal elements of correlation matrix Rk, input signal Xk, inverse channel estimate Gk, and error Ek, respectively.
As illustrated in
Correlation matrix diagonal element Rn,k is stored in memory 307 and passed to divider 305 to compute X*n,kRn,k−1, which is then passed to multiplier 304 to be multiplied with error diagonal element En,k, with the result being filtered by μ filter 309 before being passed to adder 302. Adder 302 also receives the previous inverse channel estimate diagonal element Gn,k−1 from memory 307, and the output of adder 302 is the current inverse channel estimate diagonal element Gn,k, which is passed to multiplier 204 and stored in memory 307.
The computational resources required for the RLS-based adaptive inverse channel estimator 212 utilizing equations (7) and (8) may be readily mapped onto hardware conventionally employed for existing OFDM algorithms. The values of λ and μ, which control the excess MSE and tracking/convergence behavior of the adaptation algorithm (although the correlation matrix Rk is also very useful for convergence and tracking), may be chosen in such a way that multiplication with these values may be implemented with shift and add operations only.
The approximate time domain behavior of the frequency domain equalizer depicted in
where H is the effective frequency response of the channel and σ is the additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN).
The frequency domain equalizer 200 within the VSB portion of channel decoder 104 exchanges computationally-intensive time domain equalizer of conventional hardware implementing existing VSB algorithms with a memory intensive equalizer requiring only three FFT operations, a few blocks of memory (each 1K-2K samples) and a few arithmetic operations. The memory requirement of frequency domain equalizer 200 is fully satisfied by available memory within the typical hardware implementation for the existing COFDM algorithm. With the help of a reconfigurable data path unit (not shown), the arithmetic operations may also be mapped onto the COFDM operations, thereby making a complete mapping of the frequency domain equalizer 200 on the COFDM hardware possible with the help of a supporting architecture.
Comparing the results of the DFE with the frequency domain equalizer 200 of the present invention in which the error is calculated in either a blind or trained mode, the frequency domain equalizer of the present invention shows a relatively modest performance improvement over the DFE performance. One reason is the relatively rapid tracking of the channel via the RLS adaptive inverse channel estimator. When the error in the frequency domain equalizer is calculated utilizing tentative decisions from a trellis (Viterbi) decoder, the performance improvement is more significant.
The suitability of a frequency domain equalizer for single carrier systems depends upon integrated circuit area cost-effectiveness and multi-path performance compared to a time domain alternative. For a multi-standard demodulator which includes COFDM, the frequency domain equalizer results in a cost-effective solution compared to a time domain equalizer. The frequency domain equalizer of the present invention also exhibited multi-path performance comparable to a practical decision feedback equalizer and even, in some cases such as dynamic and multi-path, co-channel interference and far-end echo, most to high performance advantages. Other potential advantages include flexibility in handling pre-cursor paths and possible improvement of carrier/timing recovery utilizing the frequency domain representation.
While optimal hardware sharing of COFDM and VSB is a main motivation for considering a frequency domain equalizer for a single carrier system, other advantages may also exist in utilizing such configurations. Since most of the equalizer operations are memory intensive, additional equalizer operations may also be implemented on the COFDM hardware without significant additional hardware overhead. Such additional operations include diversity reception utilizing a dual adaptive linear filter, complex/real mode of operation and dual channel single-carrier (e.g., quadrature amplitude modulated and vestigial sideband) demodulation. Scalable channel decoding algorithms which utilize the existing COFDM resources with minimal additional hardware overhead are more attractive.
Although the present invention has been described in detail, those skilled in the art will understand that various changes, substitutions and alterations herein may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention in its broadest form.
This application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. §119(e) to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/217,143 entitled “Frequency-Domain Equalizer for Terrestrial TV Reception” filed Jul. 7, 2000.
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