Navigational aid and carrier sense technique

Abstract

A navigational aid for use as an AIS apparatus includes a memory for storing information about previous use of individual time slots synchronized with transmission schedules of other stations and a signal detector for judging whether an information signal exists in a time slot specified in accordance with a synchronization timing signal based on the information stored in the memory and a result of monitoring of the behavior of a baseband signal obtained from a received signal on an IQ-plane. The navigational aid transmits information about own station based on a result of judgment by the signal detector. The monitoring of the behavior of the received baseband signal plotted on the IQ-plane can be accomplished by performing pattern recognition operation, for which a carrier sense technique, such as a support vector machine, subspace method or neural network, can be used.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a navigational aid according to a first embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a signal detector of the navigational aid of the first embodiment;

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of information about previous use of time slots stored in a memory of the navigational aid of the first embodiment;

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a procedure of carrier sense operation performed by a signal detector of the navigational aid of the first embodiment;

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a navigational aid according to a second embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing how a candidate slot selector selects candidate slots in the navigational aid according to the second embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a navigational aid according to a third embodiment of the invention;

FIGS. 8A and 8B are diagrams showing behavior of a TDMA-modulated signal and noise, respectively;

FIG. 9 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a signal detector of the navigational aid according to the third embodiment;

FIG. 10 is a block diagram showing a configuration of another signal detector of the navigational aid according to the third embodiment;

FIG. 11 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a navigational aid according to a fourth embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 12 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a signal detector of the navigational aid according to the fourth embodiment; and

FIG. 13 is a block diagram showing an alternative configuration of a navigational aid according to the invention.

Claims

1. A navigational aid for use as an AIS apparatus, said navigational aid comprising: a receiver for receiving signals transmitted from other stations;a reference timing generator for generating a synchronization timing signal used for controlling timing of communication with the other stations;a memory for storing information about previous use of each time slot specified in accordance with the synchronization timing signal;a signal detector for judging whether an information signal exists in a time slot specified in accordance with the synchronization timing signal by using the signal received by said receiver and the information stored in said memory; anda transmitter for transmitting information about own station in a time slot which has been judged by said signal detector to be free of an information signal transmitted from any of the other stations.

2. The navigational aid according to claim 1, wherein said transmitter transmits information about own station in a time slot which has been judged by said signal detector within a specific time duration at the start of the time slot to be free of an information signal transmitted from any of the other stations.

3. The navigational aid according to claim 2, wherein said signal detector judges whether an information signal exists in a time slot specified in accordance with the synchronization timing signal by using a measurement value of signal intensity of the signal received by said receiver and the information stored in said memory.

4. The navigational aid according to claim 2, wherein said signal detector performs pattern recognition operation to determine whether a baseband signal obtained by demodulating the signal output from said receiver is an information signal and then judging whether an information signal exists in a time slot specified in accordance with the synchronization timing signal by using a result of the pattern recognition operation and the information stored in said memory.

5. The navigational aid according to claim 4, wherein said signal detector performs the pattern recognition operation by using at least one technique selected from among a support vector machine, subspace method and neural network.

6. The navigational aid according to claim 1 further comprising a candidate slot selector for selecting candidate slots based on the information stored in said memory, the candidate slots being a set of time slots from which the time slot used for transmitting the information about own station is selected.

7. The navigational aid according to claim 2 further comprising a candidate slot selector for selecting candidate slots based on the information stored in said memory, the candidate slots being a set of time slots from which the time slot used for transmitting the information about own station is selected.

8. The navigational aid according to claim 3 further comprising a candidate slot selector for selecting candidate slots based on the information stored in said memory, the candidate slots being a set of time slots from which the time slot used for transmitting the information about own station is selected.

9. The navigational aid according to claim 4 further comprising a candidate slot selector for selecting candidate slots based on the information stored in said memory, the candidate slots being a set of time slots from which the time slot used for transmitting the information about own station is selected.

10. The navigational aid according to claim 2 wherein said signal detector verifies whether an information signal exists in the time slot specified in accordance with the synchronization timing signal throughout the entire time slot when said transmitter does not trans the information about own station in the pertinent time slot, and said memory stores information about a result of verification by said signal detector as the information about previous use of the time slot.

11. The navigational aid according to claim 3 wherein said signal detector verifies whether an information signal exists in the time slot specified in accordance with the synchronization timing signal throughout the entire time slot when said transmitter does not transmit the information about own station in the pertinent time slot, and said memory stores information about a result of verification by said signal detector as the information about previous use of the time slot.

12. The navigational aid according to claim 4 wherein said signal detector verifies whether an information signal exists in the time slot specified in accordance with the synchronization timing signal throughout the entire time slot when said transmitter does not transmit the information about own station in the pertinent time slot, and said memory stores information about a result of verification by said signal detector as the information about previous use of the time slot.

13. The navigational aid according to claim 1 further comprising: a positioning signal receiver for receiving a positioning signal transmitted from a satellite; anda position fix calculator for performing position fixing operation using the positioning signal and acquiring a precise time signal;wherein said reference timing generator generates the synchronization timing signal based on the time signal obtained from said position fix calculator.

14. The navigational aid according to claim 2 further comprising: a positioning signal receiver for receiving a positioning signal transmitted from a satellite; anda position fix calculator for performing position fixing operation using the positioning signal and acquiring a precise time signal;wherein said reference timing generator generates the synchronization timing signal based on the time signal obtained from said position fix calculator.

15. The navigational aid according to claim 3 further comprising: a positioning signal receiver for receiving a positioning signal transmitted from a satellite; anda position fix calculator for performing position fixing operation using the positioning signal and acquiring a precise time signal;wherein said reference timing generator generates the synchronization timing signal based on the time signal obtained from said position fix calculator.

16. The navigational aid according to claim 3 further comprising: a positioning signal receiver for receiving a positioning signal transmitted from a satellite; anda position fix calculator for performing position fixing operation using the positioning signal and acquiring a precise time signal;wherein said reference timing generator generates the synchronization timing signal based on the time signal obtained from said position fix calculator.

17. A carrier sense system comprising: a signal receiver for receiving a signal; anda signal detector for performing pattern recognition operation to determine whether a baseband signal obtained by demodulating the signal output from said signal receiver is an information signal and then judging whether the signal received by said signal detector is the information signal based on a result of the pattern recognition operation.

18. The carrier sense system according to claim 17, wherein said signal detector performs the pattern recognition operation by using at least one technique selected from among a support vector machine, subspace method and neural network.