1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to wireless signal transceivers, and more particularly to frequency offset estimation (FOE) and automatic frequency control (AFC) for a filtered signal with destroyed phase information.
2. Description of the Related Art
Before a raw signal is transmitted, a signal transmitter modulates the raw signal with a carrier wave with a transmitting frequency suitable for air transmission to generate a radio signal. The signal transmitter transmits the radio signal through the air. A signal transceiver then receives the radio signal and demodulates the radio signal with a local wave with a receiving frequency to recover the raw signal. The receiving frequency of the local wave of the signal transceiver is assumed to be equal to the transmitting frequency of the carrier wave of the signal transmitter. However, in practice, there is unavoidably a tiny frequency difference between the receiving frequency of the signal transceiver and the transmitting frequency of the signal transmitter, and the frequency difference, referred to as frequency offset, degrades quality of the recovered raw signal. The signal transceiver therefore estimate a frequency offset for compensation before the recovered raw signal is further processed in the signal transceiver.
When a signal is filtered, the signal is often divided into an inphase component and a quadrature-phase component for further processing. If a filter filters the original signal according to different filter coefficients to obtain an I-component and a Q-component, the phase and frequency information is lost and cannot serve as a source for conventional frequency offset estimation. A conventional frequency offset estimation module therefore estimates a frequency offset value according to the original signal prior to filtration.
Referring to
The conventional frequency offset estimator 110 estimates a frequency offset value Δfconv according to the original signal X prior to filtration as it cannot derive a frequency offset value from the filtered signal Y. The filtered signal Y, however, has a higher C/I ratio than that of the original signal X. The conventional frequency offset estimator 110 may fail to obtain the actual frequency offset value when the interference power becomes large, which might not be the case if utilizing filtered signal Y as the enhanced receiver 104 may effectively suppress certain interference. Since the frequency offset estimator 110 estimates the frequency offset value Δfconv based on the original signal X with a low C/I ratio, Δfconv is less accurate and cannot properly compensate the frequency drift, which degrades performance of the signal transceiver 100. In addition, when the C/I ratio of the original signal X is very low, the conventional frequency offset estimator 110 estimates a frequency offset value Δfconv dominated by the interference frequency offset with an inverse sign of the actual value, which causes divergence of automatic frequency control. The enhanced receiver 104 typically still could be operated at such a low C/I, the conventional frequency offset estimator 110 becomes a bottleneck of the overall transceiver 100.
The invention provides a method for frequency offset estimation according to a filtered signal with destroyed phase and frequency information. In one embodiment, a filter filters an original signal according to a series of first filter coefficients to obtain a first-channel component of the filtered signal, and filters the original signal according to a series of second filter coefficients to obtain a second-channel component of the filtered signal. A series of third filter coefficients are first derived from the first filter coefficients. The original signal is then filtered according to the third filter coefficients to obtain a reference signal. A first frequency offset value is estimated according to an artificial signal composed on the first-channel component of the filtered signal and the reference signal, wherein the first-channel component of the filtered signal is a first-channel component of the artificial signal, and the reference signal is a second-channel component of the artificial signal.
The invention provides a signal transceiver capable of frequency offset estimation according to a filtered signal with destroyed phase information. In one embodiment, the signal transceiver comprises a filter, a reference signal generator, and a frequency offset estimator. The filter filters an original signal according to a series of first filter coefficients to obtain a first-channel component of the filtered signal, and filters the original signal according to a series of second filter coefficients to obtain a second-channel component of the filtered signal. The reference signal generator derives a series of third filter coefficients from the first filter coefficients, and filters the original signal according to the third filter coefficients to obtain a reference signal. The frequency offset estimator then estimates a first frequency offset value according to an artificial signal composed of the first-channel component of the filtered signal and the reference signal, wherein the first-channel component of the filtered signal is a first-channel component of the artificial signal, and the reference signal is a second-channel component of the artificial signal.
A detailed description is given in the following embodiments with reference to the accompanying drawings.
The invention can be more fully understood by reading the subsequent detailed description and examples with references made to the accompanying drawings, wherein:
The following description is of the best-contemplated mode of carrying out the invention. This description is made for the purpose of illustrating the general principles of the invention and should not be taken in a limiting sense. The scope of the invention is best determined by reference to the appended claims.
Referring to
Because the inphase component YI of the filtered signal Y cannot match the quadrature-phase component YQ of the filtered signal Y to generate phase information suitable for frequency offset estimation, the reference signal generator 212 generates a reference signal according to the original signal X and the first filter coefficients WI as a quadrature-phase component matching the inphase component YI of the filtered signal Y. The reference signal generator 212 first derives a set of third filter coefficients from the first filter coefficients WI. The reference signal generator 212 then filters the first signal X according to the third filter coefficients to obtain a reference signal YQ′. The inphase component YI of the filtered signal Y is then combined with the reference signal YQ′ to make up an artificial signal as an input of the frequency offset estimator 214, wherein the inphase component YI of the filtered signal Y is taken as an inphase component of the artificial signal and the reference signal YQ′ is taken as a quadrature-phase component of the artificial signal.
Because the third filter coefficients for generating the reference signal is derived from the first filter coefficients WI for generating the inphase component YI of the filtered signal Y, a phase of the artificial signal is therefore not destroyed, and the frequency offset estimator 214 can estimate a frequency offset value ΔfER according to the artificial signal. In some other embodiments, the third filter coefficients for generating the reference signal is derived from the second filter coefficients WQ for generating the quadrature component YQ of the filtered signal Y, and the frequency offset value ΔfER is estimated according to an artificial signal composed on the quadrature component YQ of the filtered signal Y and the reference signal. It is also possible to derive a frequency offset value from each of the inphase and quadrature components with its reference signal, and determine a final frequency offset value by averaging the two frequency offset values or selecting one from the two. In one embodiment, the frequency offset value ΔfER is an inter-burst frequency offset of the filtered signal Y or an intra-burst frequency offset of the filtered signal Y. In addition, because the artificial signal with the inphase component YI and the quadrature-phase component YQ′ has a high C/I ratio, the frequency offset value ΔfER derived from the artificial signal is more accurate than the conventional frequency offset value Δfconv.
An embodiment of the enhanced receiver 204 generates an inphase component YI of the filtered signal Y according to the following algorithm:
wherein XI is an inphase component of the original signal X, XQ is a quadrature-phase component of the original signal X, WIa is a series of first multipliers of the first filter coefficients WI for multiplying the first-channel component XI of the original signal X, WIb is a series of second multipliers of the first filter coefficients WI for multiplying the second-channel component XQ of the original signal X, m is a filter tap index, N is the oversampling rate, and k is a sample index. Thus, the enhanced receiver 204 filters the original signal (XI, XQ) according to the first filter coefficients (WIa, WIb) to obtain the filtered signal YI.
In one embodiment, the reference signal generator 212 permutes the first filter coefficients (WIa, WIb) of the enhanced receiver 204 to obtain a set of filter coefficients (WIb, WIa) and then reverses signs of WIb to obtain a set of third filter coefficients (−WIb, WIa). The reference signal generator 212 then filters the original signal (XI, XQ) according to the third filter coefficients (−WIb, WIa) to obtain the reference signal YQ′. The reference signal YQ′ is therefore obtained according to the following algorithm:
Referring to
Referring to
Referring to
The receiving frequency controller 532 comprises an Rx FOE validation module 502, an Rx AFC loop filter 504, and an adder 506. After the frequency offset value ΔfER passes through the Rx FOE validation module 502 and the Rx AFC loop filter 504, the adder 506 adds the frequency offset value ΔfER to a feedback of the receiving frequency fRx to obtain the receiving frequency fRx. The transmitting frequency controller 534 comprises a multiplexer 522, an adder 524, a Tx FOE validation module 512, a Tx AFC loop filter 514, and an adder 516. When a signal-to-noise ratio SNR is higher than a threshold, the multiplexer 422 selects the conventional frequency offset value Δfconv as a transmitting frequency compensation value. When the signal-to-noise ratio SNR is lower than the threshold, the multiplexer 422 selects the frequency offset value ΔfER as the transmitting frequency compensation value. The adder 524 first subtracts the transmitting frequency fTX from the receiving frequency fRX to obtain a frequency difference, and then adds the transmitting frequency compensation value to the frequency difference to obtain a frequency signal. After the frequency signal passes through the Tx FOE validation module 512 and the Tx AFC loop filter 514, the adder 516 adds the frequency signal to a feedback of the transmitting frequency fTx to obtain the transmitting frequency fTx. Please note that signal-to-noise ratio is only an example for determining which frequency offset (ΔfER or Δfconv) should be used for the transmitting frequency controller 534, other measurements or index indicating the environmental conditions can replace the signal-to-noise ratio of this embodiment.
Referring to
While the invention has been described by way of example and in terms of preferred embodiment, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited thereto. To the contrary, it is intended to cover various modifications and similar arrangements (as would be apparent to those skilled in the art). Therefore, the scope of the appended claims should be accorded the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all such modifications and similar arrangements.
This application is a continuation of co-pending application Ser. No. 12/178,674 filed on Jul. 24, 2008, which claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/012,074, filed on Dec. 7, 2007, the entireties of which are incorporated herein by reference.
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Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | 12178674 | Jul 2008 | US |
Child | 13490056 | US |