Patent Application
20150049731
The invention relates generally to digital wireless communications, in particular, to coding data reliably in a wireless network without using pilot symbols.
Wireless communications have a wide range of applications that are significantly different from one another. in machine to machine (M2M) networks, a significant challenge is high reliability and low latency. Another distinctive feature of M2M networks is that they generally transmit a very small amount of data.
Many M2M networks assume a point to multi-point network, i.e., a star topology, where multiple nodes communicate with a central node using a shared channel with a guaranteed latency. Therefore, efficient multiple-access is necessary. Time division multiple access (TDMA) is one commonly used method. In a TDMA network, nodes are assigned dedicated time slots and data from the nodes are transmitted sequentially. Frequency division multiple access (FDMA) can also be used. In a FDMA network, the nodes transmit data on assigned carriers.
As shown in
As shown in
Pilot symbols do not carry data and therefore constitute overhead. The transmission of pilot symbols reduces the overall bandwidth efficiency. This is significant in the case of M2M communications, because nodes typically transmit very small size data packets and M2M communication becomes extremely inefficient when a large number of pilot: symbols are transmitted.
U.S. 20100246642 describes an OFDM-code division multiple access (CDMA) network that combines coding domain spreading and. multiplexing. In that OFDM-CDMA scheme, the spreading is performed in the frequency domain i.e., the data are first converted to the frequency domain signals (OFDM signals) and then spread using orthogonal sequences. Additionally, the reception of the data is coherent, and as a result, the receiver must equalize the channel before dispreading can be performed. Pilots can be used to perform channel estimation and equalization.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,471,932 and 8,023,905 describe a method that combines CDMA signals and OFDM signals. Two streams are processed independently and then overlaid on each other.
U.S. 20050163082 describes a method for transmitting signals to multiple receivers. Each signal is first spread using a unique spreading sequence unique and multiplexed. The receiver performs a fast Fourier transform (FFT) on the received signal, and compensates for the propagation channel response. The compensated signal is then de-spread to recover the transmitted signals.
The embodiments of the invention provide a method for coding data communicated in a wireless network of transceivers (nodes). The coding uses orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (OFDM A) and achieves high frequency diversity without transmitting pilot symbols or pilot tones as in the prior art. Each transmitter only transmits data symbols. The data symbols are transmitted on assigned set of subcarriers. Each transmitter is assigned a set of different subcarriers for different groups of data symbols. The data to be transmitted are spread over a group of symbols using a set of orthogonal spreading Sequences. Each transmission includes one or more groups of symbols.
The receiver transforms received time domain signals to frequency domain subcarriers. The receiver de-spread the subcarriers within the groups with all possible orthogonal spreading sequences and then decodes the data using decoders, such as a maximum likelihood (ML) decoder. The receiver can also estimate the channel response using decoded data symbols.
The main differences between the prior art coding and the invention include the following.
In prior art, a block of spreading sequences are preassigned to each node. Data from multiple nodes are spread with a node the specific assigned spreading code before multiplexed to subcarriers. Each spread chip sequence is distributed over multiple subcarriers.
In the embodiments of the invention, the encoding by the transmitter spreads the data using the same set of spreading sequences. However, now the output of the spreading is dependent on the current data block being transmitted, and not some preassigned spreading code as in the prior art. In other words, there is a distinct spreading sequence for each type of data symbol. The data in the invention are spread in time domain, and not in the frequency domain as in the prior art. Each subcarrier is only assigned to one node at a given time by the invention, i.e., the subcarriers are not shared by nodes as in the prior art.
The prior art generally used pilot symbols. The invented coding does not use pilot symbols or pilot tones, and different sets of subcarriers are allocated to a single node to enable maximum frequency diversity. Therefore, in the embodiments of the invention, the receiver decodes the received signal incoherently, without knowledge about channel. Each symbol group is decoded independently. The embodiments can also use phase and amplitude scrambling to reduce the peak to average power ratio (PAPR).
OFDMA Coding
The embodiments of the invention provide a method for coding data communicated in a wireless network of transceivers (nodes). The network can be a machine to machine (M2M) network.
In this example, a transmitted packet includes a set of (16) data OFDM symbols (S1, . . . , S16) 301. The data symbols are partitioned timewise into, e.g., four groups 302 of four OFDM symbols in each group. It should be rioted that the groups do not need to be symmetric.
A node is assigned a set of (four) subcarriers 303 for each group. The set can include one or more subcarriers. The assigning of the subcarriers for a particular group can change over time. The assigned subcarriers of a given node can be distributed evenly over the entire useable bandwidth to provide frequency diversity.
For a group of M=2m symbols, we partition the data into m-bit blocks. Each set of subcarrier of a. group transmits m-bits. If the node is assigned k subcarriers, the node transmits a block of data of k×m bits in each group.
Encoding
The spreading converts an m-bit data block into a 2 symbol sequence. The m-symbols of the sequence are used to modulate the subcarrier for the 2m symbols, The spreading can he according to any sets of orthogonal or quasi-orthogonal sequences, such as a Walsh-Hadamard sequence, orthogonal Fourier sequences, or a wavelet sequence.
As shown in
The symbol 10 is mapped to [+1−1+1−1], where 1 corresponds to + and − corresponds −1 in the table. The chip sequences g, after spreading, is then used to modulate the corresponding assigned subcarriers for the group of symbols to produce the OFDM data symbols for transmission.
Modulation Block
The spreading can affect the peak to average power ratio (PA PR). For example, the modulation vector for S1 is [+1 +1 +1 +1+1] results in a very high PAPR. The transmitter can modify the sequence for each subcarrier with an arbitrary phase rotation and/or amplitude multiplication scrambling vector in order to reduce the PAPR as described below with reference to
The signal is transformed into a time domain sequence p using an inverse Fourier Transform (IFFT). The time domain sequence can be processed to add cyclic prefix and converted to an analog signal, and then into a radio frequency signal (RF) before transmission.
Transmitter
Receiver
The RF signal at the antenna 600 is converted to a baseband and discretized to discrete signal rr 610. The signal is processed by the S/P block 601 to line up the FFT window and remove the cyclic prefix. The data r 611 is transformed 602 to a frequency domain signal t 612 by a Fourier transformation FFT(r) The signal t 612 is demapped dM(t) 603 to y. The demapped signal y 613 is despread dS(y) 604 with all possible chip sequences e.g., for 4 chip sequences. Table I lists all 4 entries, as described above, to generate the despread signals u0, u1, . . . ub 614. The decoding function 605 compares the despread signals and outputs the data bits z 615 with the maximum likelihoods.
Decoding
The dispreading takes the demapped signal of each group (y1, y2, . . . , y2M) and generated a listed of despread signals as
where d*ij is a complex conjugate of the jth element of the ith spreading sequence. For example, if m=2, according to Table 1, then we have
u
00
=abs(r1+r2+r3+r4),
u
01
=abs(r1+r2−r3−r4),
u
10
=abs(r1−r2+r3−r4), and
u
11
=abs(r1−r2−r3+r4).
The decoding determines the candidate of uz(y) with the maximum likelihoods, i.e., the candidate with the maximum value.
Subcarrier Assignment
For frequency diversity, the data of each node is assigned (mapped) 502 to different subcarrier in each symbol group in the frequency domain. It is not required that all subcarriers in the subcarriers in the set are contiguous.
The assignment of the set of subcarriers can be arbitrary. E.g., the same set can be used for all groups. However, to maximize the frequency diversity, the carriers in the set are evenly distributed over the entire transmission bandwidth for the duration of the transmission. As a simplified example, if the total number of subcarrier is 128 and the number of groups is four, then each set of subcarriers has 32 subcarriers. Le., if the subcarriers are indexed as [1, . . . , 128] according to frequency, then transmission is on the set of subcarriers [1, 2, 3, 4, 5] during the 1st group of symbols, the set [33, 34, 35, 36, 37] for the 2nd group, the set [65, 66, 67, 68, 69] for the 3rd group and the set [96, 97, 98, 99, 100] for the 4th group of symbols, and so forth. The receiver maps the subcarriers the same way as the transmitter.
Channel Estimation
Although the encoding and decoding are described as method steps it is understood that they can be performed by discrete circuits in the transmitter and the receiver. For example, the assigning, scrambling, transforming and converting are performed by interconnected hardware modules or other means that implement the steps.
Although the invention has been described with reference to certain preferred embodiments, it is to be understood that various other adaptations and modifications can be made within the spirit and scope of the invention. Therefore, it is the object of the append claims to cover all such variations and modifications as come within the true spirit and scope of the invention.
