The invention relates to the field of communications and signal processing systems. More particularly, the present invention relates to channelization of wide band signals for the preferred use in frequency division multiple accessing communication systems.
The present and future generations of satellites need to operate with small earth terminals such as mobile vehicle or hand held terminals. Such satellites need to be user oriented in that the user terminal needs to be relatively less complex, using low power, having low weight and low cost. Such requirement may be achieved at the cost of increasing the complexity, such as with space borne equipment and the central earth stations. Present day technology involves such processing on board the satellite. An example of such a system is mobile messaging service via satellites. In such a system, a forward link takes messages from an earth station to the satellite, which retransmits to the mobiles over spot beams. The return link begins at the mobiles, goes up to the satellite and terminates at the earth station. In such a system, the types of transmitter and receivers in the forward and reverse links may be different. Thus the optimum uplink and downlink designs to and from the mobiles and the earth stations may be very different requiring frequency translation achieved by channelization.
In the case of a multiple access communications system, the uplink uses frequency division multiple access (FDMA) signaling with low cost and low complexity terminals while the downlink uses time division multiple access (TDMA) signaling to maximize the satellite radiated power without intermodulation noise. In such systems, the small earth terminals do not need the capability of transmitting at very high burst rate and stringent satellite frame synchronization capabilities necessary for TDMA transmitter. In another multiple access system, uplink is based on random access technique while the downlink uses TDMA. In terms of modulation, all such multiple access systems make use of digital techniques with inherent advantages in terms of power efficiency, flexibility, error correction and detection coding and encryption. The feasibility of mixed mode multiple accessing techniques requires efficient means of translation between the two formats of multiple access system. Although analog techniques are in principle straightforward, in terms of implementation considerations of size, weight, cost, and flexibility, direct digital method are expected to achieve higher performance. Digital techniques can also fully exploit advances in VLSI and ASIC technologies to achieve these speed and costs objectives. Such translation may involve conversion of an FDMA signal into a TDM multiplexed signal, which may then go through a digital switch to various TDMA carriers being transmitted over the spot beams. Such digital translation techniques are also useful in the switching of FDMA carriers to different spot beams with out requiring arrays of analog bandpass filters and converters. There are several techniques for direct digital translation and switching using a channelization method where a wide band signal is channelized and individual channels are respectively processed.
Optimum system design in such cases may involve different multiple accessing techniques on the uplink and downlink. The feasibility of mixed mode multiple accessing techniques requires an efficient means of translation between the two formats of multiple accessing communication systems. There are several digital techniques available for translation, that is channelization, namely, an analytical signal method, a polyphase Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) method, a frequency domain FFT filtering method, weight, overlap and add (WOLA) method, and a tree filter multistage bank method. The analytical signal method, frequency domain FFT filtering method, and the multistage filtering method are computationally complex, the weight, overlap and add method involves processing of the input signal in blocks. Among these prior methods, the polyphase DFT method is the most efficient in terms of computational efficiencies and processes the input signal on a sample-by-sample basis.
In terms of computational efficiency and the ease of sample-by-sample processing, the polyphase DFT approach is the most attractive as the number of computations required per sample of the input signal processing increases linearly with log2 K where K is the number of channels. However, the polyphase channelizer that possesses this computational advantage is only applicable to the case where K is equal to the decimation factor M or an integer multiple. There are many significant applications where K is not equal to M or an integer multiple and it is desirable to achieve the same computational advantage as for the case of K equal to M.
The conventional polyphase DFT communication channelizer includes an analyzer for channelization and a synthesizer for dechannelization. The conventional polyphase DFT analyzer includes a front end complex downconverter for downconverting an input wideband signal into a complex input fed into an input clockwise commutator for round robin sampling for providing M channelized outputs. The M channelized outputs are fed into a filter bank of K filters to provide K filtered outputs to an FFT, the FFT outputs constitute the K channelized outputs. The input to the analyzer is the sampled version of the multiplexed signal comprising K channel signals. This polyphase DFT analyzer is computationally efficient where M=K providing a homogenous mapping between the M commutator output the K number of filters in the filter bank. That is, the polyphase analyzer includes a commutator followed by a bank of polyphase filters having filter outputs that are processed by the FFT processor. The FFT processor outputs are the desired K channels. All of the channel signals have equal one-sided bandwidth of B Hz. The sampled input is an analytic complex signal that may be obtained by a Hilbert transform operation on the real IF bandpass signal. In the polyphase analyzer for the case of K=M, all of the K channels share a common polyphase filter bank. The ith polyphase branch filter has a impulse response {overscore (p)}i(m) given by {overscore (p)}i(m)=h(mM−i) for i=0, 1, . . . , M−1, where h is the impulse response of the desired analyzer prototype low pass filter.
Similarly, the polyphase synthesizer includes an inverse FFT processor, followed by a set of polyphase filters whose outputs are combined by a commutator to yield the desired synthesized multiplexed signal. The inverse FFT providing M inverse transformed outputs to a bank of filters having M filter outputs feeding a commutator for combining the M filter outputs into a complex output. The commutator provides the complex output that is then upconverted by an upconverter for forming a wideband output. In the polyphase synthesizer, all of the K channels share a polyphase filter bank with the ith polyphase filter impulse response qi(m) given by qi(m)=f(mM+i) for i=0, 1, . . . , M−1 where f is the desired synthesizer prototype low pass filter impulse response. The total number of real multiplications required per second per channel are given by a MPDFT multiplication equation. In the MPDFT multiplication equation, the terms δ1 and δ2 are constants, the term B is the bandwidth, and the term w is the channel center frequency spacing.
However, the standard polyphase analyzer and synthesizer architecture is applicable to the case when the number of channels K is equal to the decimation factor M. When some user signals require larger frequency bands compared to other user signals, in principle, the user signal requiring larger frequency band may be allocated more than one adjacent channels out of K number of channels each of the same bandwidth. However, the filter roll off near the edges of the channels introduces band gaps among adjacent channels thus causing band gaps in the frequency band of the user allocated multiple channels which in turn causes distortion in the user signal. To avoid the problem of band gaps in the frequency band of the user with multiple channel allocation, it is desirable to introduce some overlap among the frequency response of adjacent channels. The said overlap is achieved by selecting the number of channels K greater than the decimation factor M. The selection of K greater than M thus provides signal fidelity to users assigned with multiple of the K channels. In the case when K>M, it is desirable to have similar computational and sample-by-sample processing advantages of the conventional polyphase architecture. Hence, it desirable to have a computationally efficient polyphase channelization system with a sample-by-sample processing architecture for the complex case where the number of channels K is not integrally related to the decimation factor M of the channelizer. Various modifications for the case when K is not integrally related to M, do not have the sample-by-sample processing and computational advantages of the conventional polyphase DFT method where essentially one filter operating at a single channel rate filters all the channels. In the case when some users require assignment of multiple channels, there is significant band gap and consequential distortion in the channelized signals when K is selected equal to M. These and other disadvantages are solved or reduced using the invention.
An object of the invention is to provide an analyzer for channelizing an input complex signal into channel signals.
Another object of the invention is to provide a channelizer having an analyzer for channelizing a complex input signal into channel signals and having a synthesizer for dechannelizing the channel signals into a complex output signal.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide a channelizer having an analyzer for channelizing a wideband input signal into channel signals and having a synthesizer for dechannelizing the channel signals into a wideband output signal.
Still another object of the invention is to provide a multiple access communication system having an analyzer for channelizing a wideband input signal into channel signals and having a synthesizer for dechannelizing the channel signals into a wideband output signal.
A further object of the invention is to provide an analyzer for channelizing an input complex signal decimated by a decimation factor M into K channel signals occupying K frequency bands where K is greater than M.
Yet a further object of the invention is to provide an analyzer for channelizing an input complex signal decimated by a decimation factor M into K channel signals respectively occupying K frequency bands where K is greater than M using a bank of M filter blocks and a bank of β K-point FFT processors each of which are for providing K frequency components.
Still a further object of the invention is to provide a channelizer having an analyzer for channelizing an input complex signal decimated by a decimation factor M into K channel signals respectively occupying K frequency bands where K is greater than M using a bank of N filter blocks feeding a bank of β K-point FFT processors each of which are for providing K frequency components for enabling a user signal to be channelized over a plurality of frequency bands with reduced distortion and with computation efficiency.
The present invention is directed to an analyzer for channelizing a complex input into K channel signals by a decimation factor M using a bank of filter blocks and a bank of FFT processors. The invention provides a computationally efficient and sample-by-sample processing architecture for the case when the number of channels K is greater than the decimation factor M. In a preferred form, a channelizer includes the analyzer and a compatible synthesizer. The analyzer and synthesizer can be used together in a multiple access communication system. The synthesizer is used to dechannelize the channelized signal into complex output signal. The number of channels K may be greater than the decimation factor M so that a user signal can be spread over multiple channel signals with improved signal fidelity while retaining computational efficiency. The required number of computations is computationally efficient and increases linearly with log2 (K) when K is greater than M. For broadband signals such computational requirements may be one of the dominant factors in determining the overall cost, weight, and power requirements of the satellite system, and as such, the invention has application to broadband multiple access systems such as the time division multiple access system.
The generalized polyphase analyzer includes an input clockwise commutator having round robin sampling with a decimation factor M to provide M sampled outputs. The M sampled outputs are fed into a set of M time-varying branch filter blocks each of which including a jth clockwise commutator followed by a set of β number of time-varying polyphase filters and a ring switch for providing β filtered outputs. The (M)×(β) filtered outputs of the time-varying filter blocks are then processed by a bank of β K-point FFT processors. The (M)×(β) filtered outputs feed the bank of β K-point FFT processors for generating (K)×(β) forward transformed signals that are combined using a post processing subsystem for generating the K channels signals in generalized approach. The weighted sums of the bank of β FFT processors constitute the channelizer outputs having frequency components in respective frequency bands.
A compatible generalized synthesizer architecture flows from the channelizer architecture. The synthesizer includes a K-point inverse FFT processor for receiving the channelized signals and for providing K inverse transformed outputs. The K-point inverse FFT processor is followed by a bank of K time-varying filter blocks for providing K filter outputs that are fed to a commutator for generating the complex output signal. The sequencing of filter weight vectors is determined by the ratio of K and M. The complex output signal can be upconverted into a wideband signal for broadband multiple access signaling.
Using the polyphase channelizer, a user signal can be channelized to occupy one or more frequency bands for desired signal allocation diversity with improved signal fidelity even when the user signal extends over frequency bandgaps that separate the occupied frequency bands. The generalized polyphase channelization system processes the sampled complex signal on a sample-by-sample basis and is computationally efficient even for the case when the number of channels K is not integrally related to the decimation factor M as the total required number of computations increases linearly with log2(K). These and other advantages will become more apparent from the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment.
An embodiment of the invention is described with reference to the figures using reference designations as shown in the figures. A generalized polyphase channelization system includes an analyzer, as shown in
Referring to
The complex signal is fed into an input clockwise commutator 30. The input commutator 30 is a well known conventional component. A rate fs clock signal 32 drives a Mod M counter for providing sampling signals to the input commutator 30 for sampling the complex signal at a decimation factor M and for providing x0(m) through xM−1(m) sampled outputs. The sampling may be, for example, round robin sampling, and the number of channels K may be greater than the decimation factor M. The x0(m) through xM−1(m) sampled outputs are fed into a bank of filter blocks including filter block 036a, filter block 136b, and filter block M−1 36c. Each of filter blocks 36a, 36b through 36c provide β filter outputs. As shown, filter block 036a provides y0,0(m) through y0,β−1(m) filtered outputs, where m is a time index. The y filtered outputs are in the time domain. The (M)×(β) y filtered outputs from the bank of M filter blocks 36a, 36b through 36c are fed into a bank of β K-point FFT processors, including K-point FFT processor 038a, K-point FFT processor 138b, through K-point FFT processor β−1 38c. (K−M) zero inputs 40 are also fed to the bank of β K-point FFT processors 38a, 36b, through 38c. Each of the 0 to β−1 K-point FFT processors of the bank of β K-point FFT processors receives one of the 0 to β−1 y filtered outputs from each one of the M filter blocks 36a, 36b, and 36c, and receives K−M zero inputs from the (K−M) zero inputs 40, when K is greater than M. The bank of β K-point FFT processors 38a, 38b through 38c provide χ0,0, through χK−1,β−1 transformed outputs. Each of the β K-point FFT processors 38a, 38b through 38c provide K transformed outputs χ0 through χK−1 where K is the number of channels having respective frequency bands. That is, the first K-point FFT processor 038a provides χ0,0(m) through χK−1,0(m), the second K-point FFT processor 138b provides χ0,1(m) through χK−1,1(m), and K-point FFT processor β−1 38c provides χ0,β−1(m) through χK−1,β−1(m) transformed outputs. Hence, there are (β)×(K) χ(m) transformed outputs. The (β)×(K) χ(m) transformed outputs are transform domain signals. The (β)×(K) χ(m) transformed outputs are fed into a post filter processing subsystem 42 for generating an output signal including K channelized output signals X0(m) through XK−1(m), where (m) is a time index. As such, the analyzer channelizes the complex input signal into K channelized outputs 44 over respective K frequency bands. A user signal may occupy one or more of the K frequency bands.
Referring to
Referring to
The ring switch routes the
Referring to
Referring to
Referring to
Referring to
Referring to all of the figures, the generalized polyphase channelization system can be modeled by mathematical expressions. The implementation of the analyzer can be preferably obtained for the case of K>M. With WK=ej2π/K, the output of the kth analyzer channel may be expressed by Xk(m) channel equations for k=0, 1, . . . , (K−1).
In the Xk(m) channel equation, the term W−kmMK −jmMk is the output of the WjmMK generator 96 in
Similarly, while using the expression for z(ρ,k,m) for various values of integer ρ, an enhanced z component equation may be obtained for ρ=0, 1, . . . , (M−1).
In order to define a polyphase channelization operation, let M0=gcd(M,K), where gcd denotes the greatest common divisor, then for some integers α and β, M=αM0;K=βM0;M0=gcd(M,K). With L=βγ for some integer γ, the condition L=βγ can be satisfied with zero padding of the impulse response h, as necessary, the summation in enhanced z component equation for the case of ρ=0, is now decomposed in to β sums each having γ terms as in a z(0,k,m) equation.
With the observation that
Similarly the expression for the enhanced z component equation may be rewritten as semifinal z(ρ,k,m) equations
The semifinal z(j,k,m) equation can be then expressed by a z(j,k,m) parenthetical summation.
By denoting the parenthetical summation as χk,η(m), the final z(j,k,m) equation can then be expressed as a ψk(m) summation equation.
Finally, the z component equation for the channelized signals Xk(m) can be expressed by final Xk(m) channel equation using the summation term ψm(m) for k=0, 1, . . . , (K−1).
Xk(m)=WK−kmM·ψk(m)
The summation term ψk(m) can be computed from ψk(m) summation equation, as implemented in the analyzer and shown as the outputs of the adders 94a through 94c in
In the polyphase filter equations {circle over (×)} denotes convolution, and xj,k(i)=xj(iβ−k) is one of subsequences of xj(m). Similarly, yj
The bar over the (m0+α) subscript represents modulo β value of the index (m0+α).
The clocking signals C0,κ−1,C0,κ−2, . . . ,C0,0 represent the states of the mod β counter 64 counting in the order of (β−1),(β−2), . . . , 1,0 and represents a decimal number between 0 and (β−1) in BCD form. The outputs of various delays 66 through 68 therefore provide staggered phased clock signals C0,κ−1, C0,κ−1,0. When the contents C0,κ−1,C0,κ−2, . . . ,C0,0 represent decimal 0, the output {C1,κ−1,C1,κ−2, . . . ,C1,0 of first delay block 66 represent decimal 1, and the output Cβ−1,κ−1,Cβ−1,k−2, . . . ,Cβ−1,0 of (β−1) th delay block 68 represents (β−1). Thus, when m0=0, the outputs of the counter 64 is equal to 0 while the delays 66 through 68 provide the consecutive delayed outputs equal to 1, 2 . . . ,(β−1), respectively. Thus, the output of MUX072a, is yj,m
The synthesizer inputs 100 in
Equivalently, the complex output signal {circumflex over (x)}n expression may be rewritten in terms of inverse transformed output y(n,m) in an expanded complex output signal equation.
For any fixed value of m, y(n,m) is periodic with respect to the index n with a period K. In the expanded complex output signal equation, the term f(j) for any integer j denotes the jth component of the impulse response f of the prototype low pass filter for any integer j. The prototype low pass filter impulse response f specifies the desired shape of the frequency response about the center frequencies of the K channels achieved by the channelizer synthesizer. The prototype low pass filter is a finite impulse response filter in the preferred embodiment and has only a finite number of terms f(j). Let L0 denote the length of the impulse response vector so that f(j) is equal to zero for j values outside the interval L0−1≧j≧0, and such that L0 may be factorized into the product M×L, for some integer L where M is the decimation factor. Such a factorization can always be achieved by including a sufficient number of zero components at the end of the impulse response vector f, if necessary, without modifying the desired filter response. The impulse response vectors of the synthesizer time-varying filter blocks 104a, 104b, through 104c and denoted by g0,k(m), g1,k(m), through gK−1,k(m) in
The last entry in the complex output signal table follows from the equations F=lcm(M,K) Kd=F/M and Md=F/K. With Md(K−M)=(Kd−Md)(M)=0 modulo M, and the equation [jM+n]=rK has only Md distinct values for n as given by the last column of the complex output signal solution table, excluding the last Md by Md by 0 row. For example, with M=24 and K=32, Kd=4 and Md=3. The Md=3 distinct values of n are 0, 8 and 16. In the same manner the equation [jM+n]modK=1 has Md distinct solutions for n equal to 1, (K−M+1), . . . , [(Md−1)(K−M)+1] values evaluated modulo K. For the case of M=24 and K=32, the Md distinct solutions for n of the equation [jM+n]modK=1 are equal to 1, 9 and 17. In this manner the values of n mod M satisfying [jM+n]modK=p for p=0, 1, . . . , (K−1) may be evaluated. For example, for p=31 the distinct values of n modulo 24 are equal to 7, 15 and 23. The Md distinct solutions for n mod M of the equation [jm+n]modK=p for p=0, 1, . . . , (K−1) are denoted by the pairs (p,0),(p,1), . . . , (p,Md−1). In the computation of {circumflex over (x)}(jM+n) from the equation {circumflex over (x)}(jM+n)={overscore (g)}nTY([jM+n]modK,j) for j=0, 1, . . . and n=0, 1, . . . , M−1, whenever [jM+n]modK=p for any specific integer p in the range 0 to (K−1), the index n of the vector {overscore (g)}nT will take values (p,0),(p,1), . . . ,(p,Md−1) in a cyclic manner. As Y(p,m)=[y(p,m) y(p,m−1) . . . y(p,−(L−1−m))]T for m=0, 1, 2 . . . ; p=0, 1, . . . , K−1, is comprised of the present and (L−1) past values of the y(p,m) output of the inverse FFT 102 in
Similarly the output of other time-varying filter blocks 104a, 104b, through 104c, similar to that of
The filtering operation in the time varying polyphase filter blocks 102a, 102b, through 102c in the
The implementation of the time-varying filter blocks 104a, 104b, through 104c of
The number of computations for the generalized polyphase channelizer may be estimated by the MPDFT multiplication equation.
In the MPDFT multiplication equation the first term in the sum within the outermost bracket represents the computational requirements of the filter blocks 36a through 36c, while the second term represents the forward FFT 38a through 38c computational requirements. For the example of K=32 and M=24, β is equal to 4. In situations where the first term in the sum within the outermost bracket is dominant, the computational requirements of the generalized channelizer are practically same as for case where M=K. When the second log term is dominant, the computational requirements still increase linearly with log2(K) as for the standard case, however with the coefficient of proportionality increased by a factor of β compared to the standard case. The generalized polyphase channelization system computational requirements for the case when the number of channels K is not integrally related to the decimation factor M of the channelizer is linear in log2(K) and affords a practical implementation.
The invention is directed to a generalized polyphase channelizer having an analyzer that includes a bank of M time-varying branch filter blocks and a bank of βFFT processors. Each of the jth filter blocks in turn includes a jth commutator followed by a set of β number of time-varying filters and a ring switch. Each of the M filter blocks has β outputs that are processed by a set of β number of K-point FFT processors. The weighted sums of the FFT processors are the channelizer outputs. The generalized synthesizer includes a K-point inverse FFT processor followed by a set of time-varying filters whose outputs are input to an output commutator. The output commutator output is the desired synthesizer output. The sequencing of filter weight vectors is determined by the ratio of the number of channels K and the decimation factor M. The generalized polyphase channelizer can digitally analyze and synthesize multichannel signals even for the case when the number of channels K is not integrally related to the decimation factor M as applies, for example, to the case when there is overlap among adjacent channel passbands particularly useful for user signal allocated to multiple frequency passbands. The generalized polyphase channelizer enables application where the number of channels K is greater than the decimation factor M while retaining the computational efficiency of increasing linearly with log2(K). The generalized polyphase channelizer is particularly useful for wideband and space based systems where the computational requirements is an important factor in determining the feasibility of the overall system design in terms of power, weight, size, and cost requirements. The invention should have broad market covering fields of digital signal processing and communications especially for systems involving broadband signals. Those skilled in the art can make enhancements, improvements, and modifications to the invention, and these enhancements, improvements, and modifications may nonetheless fall within the spirit and scope of the following claims.
The invention was made with Government support under contract No. F04701-00-C-0009 by the Department of the Air Force. The Government has certain rights in the invention.