U.S. patent application number 09/466885 was filed with the patent office on 2001-09-27 for am- compatible digital broadcasting method and system.
Invention is credited to KUMAR, DEREK D..
Application Number | 20010024475 09/466885 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 25262682 |
Filed Date | 2001-09-27 |
United States Patent
Application |
20010024475 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
KUMAR, DEREK D. |
September 27, 2001 |
AM- COMPATIBLE DIGITAL BROADCASTING METHOD AND SYSTEM
Abstract
A method and system are provided for the transmission and
reception of a composite radio-frequency (RF) signal including a
supplemental signal, preferably representing encoded digital
information, together with an analog signal which represents
monophonic analog audio in the AM-band. The analog monophonic
component of the composite signal may be received by conventional
AM-band audio receivers. In certain embodiments, the analog signal
is a single-sideband large-carrier or vestigial-sideband
large-carrier signal, and the composite RF signal includes a
digital signal whose spectrum is substantially confined in one
inner sideband. In other embodiments, a baseband digital signal is
combined with an analog monophonic audio signal and transmitted in
upper inner and lower inner sidebands using nonlinear compatible
quadrature amplitude modulation (NC-QAM). Additional digital
signals' spectrum occupies the lower outer and upper outer
sidebands. In certain embodiments, for each transmitted codeword,
part of the codeword information is replicated by modulated signals
in both the upper outer and lower outer sidebands, preferably with
diversity delay between the outer sideband signals.
Inventors: |
KUMAR, DEREK D.; (CHAMPAIGN,
IL) |
Correspondence
Address: |
GUILLERMO E BAEZA ESQ
LINIAK BERENATO LONGACRE & WHITE LLC
6550 ROCK SPRING DRIVE
SUITE 240
BETHESDA
MD
20817
|
Family ID: |
25262682 |
Appl. No.: |
09/466885 |
Filed: |
December 20, 1999 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
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09466885 |
Dec 20, 1999 |
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08832813 |
Apr 4, 1997 |
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6005894 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
375/270 |
Current CPC
Class: |
H04H 20/30 20130101;
H04H 20/36 20130101; H03C 5/00 20130101; H04H 2201/186 20130101;
H03D 5/00 20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
375/270 |
International
Class: |
H03C 001/52; H04L
027/02 |
Claims
I claim:
1. An in-band on-channel (IBOC) digital broadcast receiver for
receiving redundantly transmitted source bit information, the
receiver comprising: receiving means for receiving a transmitted
IBOC digital signal that is at least partially redundantly
transitted, said IBOC digital signal including encoded source bit
information, said receiving means for receiving a first portion of
said encoded source bit information that is duplicated by
modulation of signals in each of upper outer and lower outer
sidebands of a predetermined radio frequency (RF) mask, thereby
attaining at least partial codeword redundancy, said receiving
means for also receiving a second portion of said encoded source
bit information that is used to modulate a signal in at least one
of an upper inner sideband and a lower inner sideband of said mask;
demodulation means for demodulating the received IBOC digital
signals in the upper outer sideband, the lower outer sideband, and
said at least one inner sideband, in order to determine duplicate
demodulated source bit information for each at least partially
redundantly transmitted codeword that is made up of source bit
information; determination means for determining for each codeword
whether the source bit information for the codeword that is at
least partially redundantly transmitted in the upper outer sideband
or source bit information for the codeword that is at least
partially redundantly transmitted lower outer sideband is less
likely to be erroneous; and selection means for selecting the
demodulated source bit information determined by said determination
means to be less likely erroneous.
2. The IBOC receiver of claim 1, wherein said receiving means is
further for simultaneously receiving within said mask said IBOC
signal and an analog AM-compatible monophonic signal in a central
region of said mask about a center frequency.
3. The IBOC receiver of claim 1, further including processing means
for processing the demodulated and selected source bit information
and forwarding same to a user.
4. The IBOC receiver of claim 1, further comprising means for
combining demodulated source bit or codeword information from (i)
said inner sideband digital signal and the upper outer sideband
digital signal, with (ii) demodulated codeword information from
said inner sideband digital signal and the lower outer sideband
digital signal, when said determination means determines that the
likelihood of error in the demodulated or recovered codeword with
part of the codeword information in the upper outer sideband is
substantially equal to the likelihood of error for the recovered
codeword with part of the codeword information in the lower outer
sideband.
5. The IBOC receiver of claim 1, further comprising upper outer and
lower outer sideband digital signal demodulators and at least one
of an upper inner and a lower inner sideband digital signal
demodulator, and time diversity delay means located prior to said
determination means for compensating for a corresponding delay in a
corresponding IBOC transmitter thereby rendering the receiver
robust against deleterious events which may affect both the upper
outer and lower outer sideband signals at substantially the same
time.
6. The IBOC receiver of claim 1, wherein said determination means
is further for comparing accumulated branch metrics at a codeword
terminating state from Viterbi decoding of duplicate codeword
estimates determined from (i) demodulation of said upper outer
sideband and inner sideband digital signals, and (ii) demodulation
of said inner sideband and said lower outer sideband digital
signals.
7. The IBOC receiver of claim 1, wherein said determination means
is further for comparing Hamming distances for codeword estimates
determined from (i) demodulation of upper outer sideband and inner
sideband digital signals, and (ii) demodulation of said inner
sideband and lower outer sideband digital signals and corresponding
re-encoded decoded codewords.
8. The IBOC receiver of claim 1, wherein the receiver includes only
one antenna, and wherein the upper outer and lower outer sideband
signals representing redundant codeword information are one of (i)
identical modulated upper outer and lower outer sideband RF
signals; and (ii) differently modulated upper outer and lower outer
sideband signals representing substantially the same
information.
9. A method of receiving an in-band on-channel (IBOC) digital
broadcast radio frequency (RF) signal that is at least partially
redundantly transmitted in upper and lower outer sidebands of a
mask, the method comprising the steps of: receiving via a receiver
the IBOC digital broadcast signal that has a first portion of
codeword information replicated in each of an upper outer sideband
and a lower outer sideband that are positioned relative to a center
frequency, and receiving a second portion of codeword information
in at least one of an upper inner sideband and a lower inner
sideband; determining, in the receiver, whether the source bit
information for the codeword at least partially in the upper outer
sideband is less likely to have errors in a determined source bit
estimate than the replicated source bit information for the
codeword that is at least partially in the lower outer sideband;
and selecting, in the receiver, the source bit information for the
codeword determined in said determining step to be less likely to
have source bit errors, whereby the method of receiving is robust
against adjacent channel interference.
10. The method of claim 9, wherein said receiving step further
includes receiving an analog AM-compatible monophonic signal
located between the upper outer and the lower outer sidebands,
along with said IBOC signal that is present in the upper outer
sideband, the lower outer sideband, and said at least one inner
sideband.
11. The method of claim 10, further comprising the step of
separating the received analog AM-compatible monophonic signal from
the IBOC-digital signal and thereafter separately demodulating said
IBOC signal and said analog AM-compatible monophonic signal
independently from one another; and wherein the replicated codeword
information in the upper outer sideband is received at a different
point in time than the corresponding codeword information in the
lower outer sideband so that the system is robust against
deleterious effects.
12. The method of claim 9, further comprising the step of time
delaying demodulated information prior to source bit determination
of one of the received upper outer and lower outer sideband IBOC
signals in the receiver, thereby rendering the receiver robust
against certain deleterious effects which may affect both outer
sideband signals at once.
13. The method of claim 9, further comprising the step of time
delaying demodulated information prior to source bit determination
of said received inner sideband digital signal and at least one of
the received upper outer and lower outer sideband IBOC DAB signals
in the receiver, thereby rendering the receiver robust against
certain deleterious effects which may affect both outer sideband
signals at once.
14. The method of claim 9, wherein said determining step combines
demodulator information from (i) the inner sideband digital signal
and the upper outer sideband digital signal with demodulator
information from (ii) said inner sideband digital signal and lower
outer sideband digital signal when it is determined that the
likelihood of error in the recovered source bit information from
the redundantly transmitted demodulated codewords is approximately
equal, and thereafter combines the demodulator information from the
upper outer, lower outer, and said at least one inner sidebands in
order to recover source bits.
15. An in-band on-channel (IBOC) digital audio broadcast (DAB)
communication system including a transmitter and at least one IBOC
DAB receiver, the IBOC DAB system comprising: signal generator
means in the transmitter including analog AM-compatible monophonic
signal generator means, upper outer sideband digital signal
generator means, lower outer sideband digital signal generator
means, and at least one of upper inner sideband digital signal
generator means and lower inner sideband digital signal generator
means, said transmitter for combining an analog AM-compatible
monophonic signal generated by said AM-compatible signal generator
means together with digital sideband signals from said upper outer
sideband generator means, said lower outer sideband generator
means, and said inner sideband generator means, into a composite
signal to be transmitted to said one receiver, and wherein said
sideband digital signals each include source bit information; means
for transmitting said composite signal to said receiver; said IBOC
DAB receiver for receiving said composite signal, said receiver
including analog AM monophonic demodulator means, upper outer
sideband digital demodulator means, lower outer sideband digital
demodulator means, and at least one of upper inner and lower inner
sideband digital demodulator means; said receiver further including
a comparing device for determining which of i) recovered source bit
information from demodulation of inner sideband IBOC DAB signals
and upper outer sideband IBOC DAB signals, and (ii) recovered
source bit information from demodulation of said inner sideband
IBOC DAB signals and lower outer sideband IBOC DAB signals, is less
likely to be erroneous; and said receiver further including a
selector for selecting, for further processing and forwarding to a
user, recovered source bit information determined by said comparing
device to be less likely to be erroneous.
16. The system of claim 15, wherein said transmitter includes at
least one time delay device for delaying the information in the
inner sideband digital signals and one of the upper outer and lower
outer sideband digital signals, and wherein said receiver includes
a corresponding delay mechanism for delaying demodulated
information in the other one of the upper outer and lower outer
sidebands, so that the system is robust against unexpected
deleterious effects which may affect the upper outer and lower
outer sideband signals at once.
17. The system of claim 15, wherein said transmitter transmits part
of the information redundantly in said upper outer and lower outer
sidebands and wherein the upper outer and lower outer sideband
signals representing said redundant information may or may not be
identical although the information therein is redundant.
18. The system of claim 15, wherein each of the upper outer, lower
outer, and the inner sideband digital signals includes an additive
plurality of orthogonal or approximately orthogonal subcarrier
signals.
19. The system of claim 18, wherein the subcarrier signals in upper
outer, lower outer, and inner sideband digital signals are
modulated, in said transmitter, as pairs with m-ary pragmatic
trellis coded modulation (PTCM) where each transmitted codeword has
a finite-length and is terminated in the transmitter encoder at a
predetermined state.
20. The system of claim 15, wherein said comparing device further
determines whether to (i) select recovered source bit information
from demodulation and determination of the inner sideband digital
signal together with only one of the upper outer and lower outer
sideband digital signals or to (ii) combine codeword information
determined from the upper outer and lower outer sideband digital
signals and recover source bit information from the combined
information.
21. The system of claim 15, wherein said upper outer sideband
generator means, said lower outer sideband generator means, said
inner sideband generator means, and said monophonic generator means
are one of (i) separate and distinct generators, (ii) combined into
a single generator means, and (iii) at least two of said generator
means are combined.
22. A method of receiving a digitally modulated signal including at
least partially redundantly transmitted codeword information, the
method comprising the steps of: receiving the digitally modulated
signal which has a first part of the codeword information redundant
in modulation of signals in each of an upper outer sideband and a
lower outer sideband relative to a center frequency of a
predetermined mask so as to result in redundancy of at least part
of the codeword information, and receiving a second part of the
codeword information in only one of an upper inner sideband and a
lower inner sideband, whereby the codeword information in said
upper outer sideband is redundant to the codeword information in
the lower outer sideband; demodulating received signals from said
upper outer, said lower outer, and said one inner sidebands;
determining which of source bit information from recovered at least
partially redundant codewords, from (i) demodulation of said one
inner sideband and upper outer sideband signals, and (ii)
demodulation of said one inner sideband and lower outer sideband
signals, is less likely to be erroneous; and selecting recovered
source bit information determined in said determining step as being
less likely to be erroneous.
23. The method of claim 22, wherein said receiving step further
includes receiving redundantly modulated upper outer sideband
signals at a different point in time than the corresponding
redundantly modulated lower outer sideband signals whereby the
method is robust certain deleterious effects which may affect both
outer sideband signals at once.
24. A method of transmitting a redundant IBOC-DAB radio frequency
(RF) signal in an IBOC DAB RF communication system which is robust
to certain deleterious effects, the method comprising the steps of:
providing a source message which is to be at least partially
redundantly transmitted to a corresponding receiver; using the
source message to generate codeword information, a first part of
which is used to redundantly data-modulate a set of subcarrier
signals in each of an upper outer sideband and a lower outer
sideband of a predetermined RF mask over a plurality of baud
intervals so that the respective outer sideband signals include
redundant codeword information thus providing frequency diversity,
and a second part of the codeword information is used to
data-modulate a set of subcarrier signals in at least one of an
upper inner and a lower inner sideband; time-delaying the codeword
information used for the modulation of only one of the upper outer
and lower outer sideband digital signals relative to the other;
generating an analog AM-compatible monophonic signal to be
transmitted; and transmitting together, via an antenna, the analog
AM-compatible monophonic signal, the inner sideband digital signal,
and the redundant outer sideband digital signals to an IBOC-DAB
receiver.
25. A method of receiving a digitally modulated signal including
codeword information, the method comprising the steps of: receiving
the digitally modulated signal that has a first part of the
codeword information redundant in an upper outer sideband and a
lower outer sideband relative to a center frequency of a
predetermined mask, and a second part of the codeword information
non-linearly modulated in inner sidebands of the mask; demodulating
received signals from the upper outer, lower outer, and
non-linearly modulated inner sidebands; determining which of
recovered duplicated codewords from (i) demodulation of the inner
sideband signals and upper outer sideband signals, and (ii)
demodulation of the said inner sideband signals and lower outer
sideband signals, is less likely to be erroneous; and selecting
recovered source bit information from the demodulated codeword
determined in said determining step has to be likely to be
erroneous.
26. An in-band on-channel (IBOC) digital broadcast receiver
comprising: receiving means for receiving a redundantly transmitted
IBOC digital RF signal including encoded source bit information,
said receiving means for receiving a first portion of said encoded
source bit information that is duplicated by modulation of signals
in each of an upper outer and a lower outer sideband of a
predetermined mask, and for receiving a second portion of said
encoded source bit information that is used to non-linearly
modulate signals in each of an upper inner sideband and a lower
inner sideband, whereby the upper outer sideband signal is
redundant to the lower outer sideband signal; demodulation means
for demodulating the received IBOC digital signal in the upper
outer sideband, the lower outer sideband, the upper inner sideband,
and the lower inner sideband in order to determine at least
partially duplicated demodulated source bit information for each at
least partially redundantly transmitted codeword made up of said
source bit information; determination means for determining whether
the source bit information for the codeword having a portion
thereof in the at least partially upper outer sideband or the at
least partially duplicate codeword having a similar portion thereof
in the lower outer sideband is less likely to be erroneous; and
selection means for selecting the source bit information determined
by said determination means to be less likely erroneous.
27. The IBOC receiver of claim 26, wherein said receiving means is
further for simultaneously receiving within said mask said IBOC
signal and together with an analog AM-compatible monophonic signal
located in a central region of said mask about a center frequency.
Description
RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This application is related to commonly owned co-pending
U.S. Ser. No. 08/666,985, filed Jun. 19, 1996, entitled "IN-BAND
ON-CHANNEL DIGITAL BROADCASTING METHOD SYSTEM" and U.S. Ser. No.
08/586,214, filed Jan. 1, 1996, entitled "REFERENCE SIGNAL
COMMUNICATION METHOD AN SYSTEM," the disclosures of which are each
hereby incorporated herein by reference.
[0002] This invention relates to a method of communication and a
transmitter and receiver system for the terrestrial radio-frequency
(RF) broadcast and reception of a digitally encoded signal together
with an analog signal in the conventional AM-band of broadcast
frequencies. The digital signal represents general digital (bit)
information and may include a compressed digital audio signal. In
certain embodiments, the spectrum of the composite digital signal
includes either an upper inner or lower inner sideband about the
allocation center frequency, and an analog signal representing
monophonic audio occupies the other inner sideband. In other
embodiments, a baseband digital signal is combined with an analog
monophonic signal, and the composite signal is transmitted in the
upper inner and lower inner sidebands using nonlinear compatible
quadrature amplitude modulation (NC-QAM). The analog monophonic
signal may be received by conventional AM-band receivers using
envelope detection. For applications requiring additional bit
capacity, for example, digital audio, supplemental bit information
is represented by generating additional digital signals in the
upper outer and lower outer sidebands. The digital receiver system
of the invention detects and determines bit information from the
inner sideband signals and outer sideband signals. In certain
embodiments, the system of the invention is robust against the
effects of one-sided first and second adjacent channel interference
and other frequency-selective forms of interference due to the
transmission of replicas of part of the codeword information in
both the upper outer and lower outer sidebands, with or without
diversity delay between the upper outer and lower outer sideband
information.
[0003] A portion of the disclosure of this patent application
contains material which is subject to copyright protection. The
copyright owner has no objection to the reproduction by anyone of
the patent document as it appears in the Patent and Trademark
Office files or records, but otherwise reserves all copyrights
whatsoever. Software for carrying out some of the methods and
systems described herein has been filed with the United States
Patent and Trademark Office herewith in the form of a microfiche
appendix including numerous framers, one of which being a title
frame. The microfiche appendix is entitled AM-COMPATIBLE DIGITAL
BROADCASTING METHOD AND SYSTEM and includes two (2) sheets of
microfiche containing one hundred fifty-one (151) frames.
[0004] The microfiche includes two ASCII files: CODE.TXT and
DATA.TXT, CODE.TXT including source code for redundant modulation
and demodulation of sideband digital signals using pragmatic
trellis coded modulation and a dynamic codeword diversity
selector/combiner. DATA.TXT includes OFDM subcarrier signal
representations for inner and outer sideband waveforms, as well as
Hilbert transform tap weights for an SSB embodiment of the analog
signal.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0005] There is a scarcity of contiguous amounts of available
(unused) spectrum at those radio frequencies which are desirable
for wide-coverage terrestrial broadcast communication systems in
the high frequency (HF) band, between 3 megahertz (MHz) and 30 MHz,
and especially in the low frequency (LF) band, between 300
kilohertz (kHz) and 3,000 kHz. In certain cases, the spectrum of
certain conventional information-bearing signals does not entirely
occupy a particular frequency allocation, and/or the existing
signals may not utilize all of the signaling dimensions, for
example, having only amplitude modulation or phase modulation, but
not both at once. As a result, it is desirable to generate
supplemental signals, especially digitally-encoded signals, in the
unoccupied parts of existing bandwidth allocations and/or by making
use of underutilized signaling dimensions in order to provide
capacity for digital (bit) information in a manner that does not
introduce significant amounts of interference to existing signals.
The additional information capacity is used for the introduction of
new broadcast services, for example, navigation and subscription
messaging, and/or the enhancement of existing broadcast services,
for example, digital audio broadcasting to provide recovered audio
quality comparable to high fidelity tape and compact disc (CD)
recordings.
[0006] In the United States, the commercial (expanded) AM broadcast
band presently occupies a part of the LF band of frequencies
between 535 kHz and 1705 kHz, inclusive. The frequency region is
subdivided into a plurality of channel allocations with an
interchannel frequency separation of 10 kHz (an interchannel
frequency separation of 9 kHz allocations has been proposed).
Licensed radio stations are subject to restrictions on permissible
AM-band signal power, spectrum occupancy (i.e. bandwidth), and
geographic location in order to control the expected amounts of
interference between stations. Rules and regulations regarding the
licensing and operation-of AM-band stations are enacted and
enforced by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the
United States. A restriction for AM-band sound broadcast signals is
determined by the FCC "emissions mask". The emissions mask
specifies a power spectrum density curve which defines the maximum
allowable power of a discrete emission with respect to the licensed
power as a function of the frequency offset from the nominal
AM-band channel center frequency. Discrete emission compliance at a
particular frequency is measured over a 300 Hz integration
bandwidth.
[0007] Prior art FIG. 1 is a graph which illustrates an emissions
mask for AM-band broadcast signals in the United States. The
abscissa values are the frequency offset with respect to nominal
AM-band channel allocation center frequency 1. The ordinate values
are the decibel spectrum magnitudes with respect to the licensed
modulated carrier power (dBc). The emissions mask is shown as bold
curve 3. Conventional monophonic analog AM signal 7 is the
modulated signal representation of the arithmetic sum L+R of the
left (L) and right (R) conventional analog audio signals.
Conventional monophonic AM signal 7 is substantially confined
within, under, and/or beneath emissions mask 3. The center region
of mask 3 includes upper inner 5 and lower inner 9 sidebands and
occupies a two-sided bandwidth of about 20.4 kHz (i.e. 9.9 kHz+0.3
kHz+0.3 kHz+9.9 kHz) around channel center frequency 1. In the
center region, the maximum emission power may be as large as the
licensed power; in other words, -0 dBc. Outer sideband regions 13
and 11 are disjoint and immediately adjacent to inner sidebands 5
and 9, respectively, at positive and negative frequency offsets,
respectively, with respect to center frequency 1. Upper outer
sideband region 13 occupies 9.8 kHz, beginning at a positive 10.2
kHz offset and extending to a 20 kHz offset. Lower outer sideband
region 11 also occupies 9.8 kHz, beginning at a negative 10.2 kHz
frequency offset with respect to center frequency 1 and extending
to a negative offset of 20 kHz. It will be understood by those of
skill in the art that the bandwidth occupancies of sidebands 5, 9,
11, and 13 are to change.
[0008] In outer sidebands 11 and 13, the maximum power of a
discrete emission is attenuated by at least 25 decibels with
respect to the licensed power; in other words, -25 dBc.
Conventional AM-band broadcasting uses large-carrier amplitude
modulation so that a significant fraction of the RF signal power is
emitted as the sinusoidal carrier component with center frequency
1. In many circumstances, analog signal 7 may be substantially
confined in a spectrum region within inner sidebands 5 and 9,
closer to a two-sided bandwidth of 14 kHz (.+-.7 kHz) than 20.4 kHz
around center frequency 1, with outer sidebands 11 and 13
substantially unoccupied. There are additional sideband regions
defined in emissions mask 3 which are not shown in FIG. 1,
beginning at .+-.20 kHz with respect to center frequency 1, which
extend significantly beyond outer sidebands 11 and 13.
[0009] Since the bandwidth of conventional monophonic AM signal 7
does not occupy all of the spectrum allocated in inner sidebands 5
and 9 and outer sidebands 11 and 13 within emissions mask 3, it is
known that one or more supplemental information-bearing signals,
preferably representing digital information, may be transmitted
together with conventional monophonic analog AM-band signal 7,
while still remaining substantially confined within emissions mask
3. When the generation of the supplemental signal is unrelated to
conventional analog AM signal 7, the spectrum of the supplemental
(i.e. digital) signal is typically confined to outer sidebands 11
and 13 in order to prevent mutual interference between the analog
AM signal and the digital signal. In certain circumstances, when
the digital signal is related to conventional analog AM signal 7,
the spectrum of the digital signal may also include part of or the
entirety of inner sidebands 5 and 9. In general, the sideband
regions beyond (i.e. at greater frequency offsets than) upper outer
13 and lower outer 11 sidebands are unsuitable for use in
broadcasting a supplemental digital signal which provides wide
geographic coverage because i) the permissible amount of emitted
power in these sidebands is very small, e.g. no more than -35 dBc,
and ii) signals at a such a large frequency offset from center
frequency 1 may be subject to (or cause) significant amounts of
interference from (or to) stations with AM-band transmitters
operating on adjacent frequency channel allocations.
[0010] In certain applications, it is known that the supplemental
digital signal represents a compressed digital audio signal to
accomplish the goal of improving the received quality of voice and
sound transmissions for broadcasting in the AM-band. U.S. Pat. No.
5,588,022 to Dapper, et. al., describes an In-band On-channel
(IBOC) Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) communication system for
use in the AM-band. In the '022 system, a digital signal,
preferably representing a source-compressed high quality audio
signal, is combined with a conventional analog AM signal to
determine a composite RF signal which is substantially confined
within the FCC emissions mask for the AM-band. IBOC DAB makes use
of the existing infrastructure of transmitter systems and does not
disrupt the economic model for sound broadcasting in the United
States. In the '022 system, the composite RF signal is transmitted
using a conventional AM transmitter and antenna system so long as
the transmission system has sufficiently low distortion and wide
bandwidth. A graph representing the spectrum of the signals in the
'022 system is shown in prior art FIG. 2, where the composite RF
signal spans a bandwidth of 40 kHz and is the additive sum of
digital signals generated in upper outer 13 and lower outer 11
sidebands, conventional large carrier analog AM signal 7, and upper
inner 5 and lower inner 9 sideband digital signals. Each sideband
digital signal is composed of a plurality of narrowband orthogonal
sinusoidal subcarriers which are generated and summed together
according to the known method of Orthogonal Frequency Division
Multiplexing (OFDM), also known variously as Coded Orthogonal
Frequency Division Multiplexing (COFDM), Multicarrier Modulation
(MCM), and Discrete Multitone Modulation [reference: J. A. C.
Bingham, "Multicarrier modulation for data transmission: an idea
whose time has come," IEEE Communications Magazine, Vol. 28, No. 5,
pp. 5-14, May 1990]. The narrowband subcarriers are each digitally
modulated with either binary phase-shift keying (BPSK), quaternary
phase-shift keying (QPSK), or 32-ary quadrature amplitude
modulation (QAM).
[0011] In FIG. 2, groups of OFDM subcarriers are generated to
occupy substantially all of upper outer 13 and lower outer 11
sidebands defined under emissions mask 3. These modulated
subcarriers have both an in-phase and quadrature signal component
with respect to conventional monophonic analog AM signal 7. In the
center region of emissions mask 3, the OFDM subcarrier group in
lower inner sideband 9 and the OFDM subcarrier group in upper inner
sideband 5 are generated as complementary pairs (i.e. each
subcarrier in group 5 has a corresponding subcarrier in group 9
with a predetermined phase relationship) so that the resulting
composite signal for the inner sidebands has a linear
phase-quadrature relationship (i.e. out-of-phase by 90.degree. or
II/2 radians or positive or negative odd integer multiple thereof)
to analog AM signal 7. As a result of the linear phase-quadrature
relationship, the spectrum of the composite digital signal in the
inner sidebands may substantially overlap in frequency the spectrum
of conventional analog AM signal 7. In the '022 patent,
conventional analog AM signal 7 is referred to as an I (in-phase)
signal, and the composite inner sideband digital signal is referred
to as a Q (quadrature) signal. The quadrature composite inner
sideband digital signal is also attenuated with respect to the
analog AM signal by a significant amount which varies according to
each subcarrier in the composite. Since the composite inner
sideband digital signal is phase-quadrature to the conventional
analog AM-band signal, the two signals may be readily separated
from each other in the corresponding receiver system in the absence
of distortion using the known method of synchronous linear
demodulation. In the '022 system, additional bit information is
conveyed by OFDM digital signals generated to occupy upper outer 13
and lower outer 11 sidebands in addition to inner sidebands 5 and
9. However, unlike the composite inner sideband digital signal, the
upper and lower outer sideband digital signals have both in-phase
and quadrature signal components and are not phase-quadrature to
conventional analog AM signal 7. In order to prevent mutual
interference between the outer sideband signals and the analog AM
signal, the outer sideband signals have to be substantially
frequency-orthogonal to conventional analog AM signal 7. The outer
sideband signals may be separated from the analog AM signal in the
receiver system using bandpass filtering. The correlation
processing used in the conventional demodulation of OFDM signals by
the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) mathematical algorithm inherently
accomplishes some amount of bandpass filtering.
[0012] The premise that a supplemental signal can occupy the same
spectrum as conventional analog AM signal 7 by generating the
supplemental signal so that it is quadrature to the conventional
analog AM signal was known prior to the '022 system, without
consideration of whether such signal represents analog or digital
information. Various such systems were developed for the
application of analog AM-band stereo broadcasting. For example, the
analog AM stereo system proposed by Harris [reference: F. G.
Stremler. Introduction to Communication Systems. Reading, Mass.:
Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, 2nd edition, appendix H, pp.
679-687] uses linear quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) to
generate two phase-quadrature signals which occupy the inner
sidebands in AM-band emissions mask 3; see also U.S. Pat. No.
4,458,361 to Tanabe, et. al., and Y. Sakaie, et. al., "An
amplitude-modulated stereo system", IEEE Transactions on
Broadcasting, Vol. 26, No. 4, pp. 125-132, Dec. 1980. One of the
signals is, or is related to, conventional monophonic L+R analog AM
signal 7, and the other signal is, or is related to, an analog
representation of the L-R stereo difference signal.
[0013] U.S. Pat. No. 4,688,255 to Kahn, describes a system in which
a digital signal is generated to be phase-quadrature to the
conventional analog AM signal. The digital signal is a narrowband
phase-shift keyed (PSK) sinusoidal waveform, whose spectrum
includes narrowband emissions at frequency offsets of about .+-.10
kHz from AM-band channel allocation center frequency 1. The
spectrum of the digital signal in the '255 system does not
significantly overlap the spectrum of the conventional analog AM
signal so that compatibility with both monophonic and stereophonic
analog AM-band signals is maintained. The amount of power in the
transmitted digital signals is varied according to the analog
signal power in order to minimize interference in the recovered
analog audio signal. A disadvantage of the '255 system is that only
a small amount of bandwidth is available for generation of the
digital signal. Furthermore, reception of the digital signal is
deleteriously affected in the first-adjacent interference
circumstance because the upper or lower sideband signals may be
substantially occluded, yet both sidebands are always combined in
the '255 receiver system.
[0014] A known disadvantage of linear phase-quadrature methods for
generating a supplemental signal to the conventional analog AM
signal, whether representing analog or digital information, is that
the existence of the quadrature signal causes distortion in the
received and determined analog AM signal estimate in analog AM-band
receivers which implement envelope detection. Envelope detection is
widely implemented for the demodulation of monophonic analog AM
signals because of its simplicity and low cost. Unfortunately,
envelope detectors for demodulating monophonic analog AM signals
are responsive to both the in-phase signal component, which is
desirable when the in-phase signal component is the monophonic
analog AM signal, and the quadrature signal component, which is
undesirable when the quadrature signal component is the
supplemental signal. In order to minimize the amount of distortion
introduced by the quadrature signal for envelope detection
receivers, the quadrature signal is typically either i)
significantly attenuated when compared to the in-phase analog AM
signal, as described in the Harris AM-band analog stereo system
proposal, or ii) an envelope-correcting factor is introduced which
affects to substantially cancel the distortion caused by the
quadrature signal in envelope detection receivers, as described in
the Motorola AM-band analog stereo system proposal [reference: F.
G. Stremler. Introduction to Communication Systems. ibid.]. An
advantage of the Motorola AM-band analog stereo system proposal is
that the supplemental signal, which is the analog stereo difference
signal, may be transmitted at a power level comparable to the
monophonic analog AM signal. Comparable power levels are desirable
so that the coverage provided by the analog AM stereo signal is
similar to that provided by a conventional monophonic analog AM
signal. However, the Motorola analog stereo system proposal
requires a more complicated receiver system because the effect of
the envelope-correction factor has to be removed in order to
recover the stereo difference signal.
[0015] In the '022 system to Dapper, et. al., the deleterious
effect of the quadrature composite inner sideband digital signal on
conventional analog AM receivers with envelope detection is
mitigated by the significant attenuation of the composite inner
sideband digital signal when compared to the analog AM signal. This
approach is similar to the Harris analog AM stereo system proposal
although the specific method for accomplishing attenuation is
different; in the Harris system, a phase offset is introduced
between the quadrature signals. Under ideal RF propagation
conditions, the low-power digital signal may be separated from the
received composite RF signal, which also includes the high-power
analog AM signal, with relatively small distortion to the recovered
digital signal. However, when the RF propagation conditions are
dispersive (e.g. frequency-selective with non-flat group delay) or
the transmitter and receiver implementations have appreciable
nonlinearities or dispersion, mutual interference between the
analog AM signal and the digital signal in the '022 systems may be
caused by "cross-talk"; in other words, the loss of the
phase-quadrature relationship between the signals, also called the
loss of "orthogonality". Since the analog AM signal has
substantially larger power than the digital signal, a relatively
small amount of crosstalk measured, for example, by equivalent
phase error, may result in substantial interference from the analog
AM signal to the recovered digital signal.
[0016] There are also disadvantages to the '022 system in
circumstances where there are other operating AM-band transmitters
with the same or similar allocation center frequencies. In order to
convey a large amount of user source bit information (e.g. 96
kbit/sec) in a relatively narrow bandwidth (e.g. 40 kHz), the
modulation method implemented in the '022 system has to provide for
a very high user bit information density, between about 3
bits/Hz/sec and 5 bits/Hz/sec, depending upon the specific bit
throughput requirements and the amounts of forward error correction
(FEC) redundancy included with the user source bit information.
Such high information densities require a relatively large
signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) for adequate receiver operation at a
sufficiently low bit error rate (BER), typically a BER of less than
about 1.times.10.sup.-6 after error correction for digital audio
applications. According to published laboratory data for an AM-band
IBOC DAB system whose description is similar to that of the '022
system, impairment of the received digital audio signal occurs at a
SNR ratio of 19 dB, which is quite large (a large required SNR is
undesirable) [reference: "Digital Audio Radio; Laboratory Tests;
Transmission Quality Failure Characterization and Analog
Compatibility," published by Electronic Industries Association
(EIA) Consumer Electronics Group (CEG), Digital Audio Radio (DAR)
Subcommittee, Aug. 11, 1995, sections A, AI].
[0017] As described previously, the FCC Rules and Regulations act
to restrict the power, bandwidth and geographic location of AM-band
transmitters with similar allocation frequencies. These rules
permit AM-band transmitters with the same channel allocation
frequency (e.g. center frequency 1), known as co-channel
transmitters, to be situated so that the ratio between desired and
undesired signal energies, known as the "D/U ratio", at the edge of
coverage for the desired transmitter's signal is only 20:1, which
is 26 dB. According to the '022 patent, the power of each OFDM
subcarrier in the digital signal is less than -25 dBc (excluding
the two innermost subcarriers used for frequency-tracking only).
Thus, at the edge of coverage, the interfering analog AM signal
power becomes comparable to the digital signal power. Since a
relatively large SNR (e.g. 19 dB) is needed for proper operation of
the digital signal receiver, having comparable amounts of digital
signal power and interfering analog signal power may cause digital
receiver failure. As a result, the digital signal may not be
reliably received except when the digital signal receiver is in
close physical proximity to the desired signal's transmitter; in
other words, the coverage of the digital signal is adversely
affected when compared to the coverage of the conventional analog
AM signal. Signal coverage over a wide area is important to
minimize the number of transmitters needed to provide sufficient
signal strength over a particular geographic region. A primary goal
of IBOC DAB systems, whether operating in the AM-band or the
FM-band, is to provide digital signal coverage comparable to the
corresponding analog signal coverage.
[0018] There are other interference circumstances where the effects
of adjacent AM-band transmitters on the operation of the '022
system are even more deleterious than in the case of co-channel
interference. Prior art FIG. 3 is a graph which illustrates a
circumstance where there is an operating AM-band transmitter under
the first-adjacent circumstance. This occurs for (interfering)
transmitters with allocation center frequencies at a positive or
negative 10 kHz offset from center frequency 1 of the desired
transmitter's signal. In FIG. 3, a first adjacent interferer is
shown with positive offset center frequency 19, but the choice for
illustration purposes is arbitrary. According to FCC Rules and
Regulations, for an analog AM receiver located at the edge of
coverage for the desired signal, the amount of interfering power in
the received signal due to a possible first adjacent AM-band
transmitter may be as much as one-fourth (i.e. a D/U ratio of 6 dB)
as the desired signal's power. A more-optimistic circumstance is
shown in FIG. 3, which corresponds to a situation where the
receiver is closer to the desired signal's transmitter. The
spectrum of interfering analog AM signal 21 significantly occludes
both upper inner 5 and upper outer 13 sideband regions in the
spectrum of the desired signal, so that reliable determination of
unique information in each of these sidebands may not be possible.
Lower outer sideband 11 is substantially unaffected. When the
interfering transmitter also emits an IBOC DAB signal according to
the '022 patent, there may also be interference between lower outer
digital sideband 23 of the interfering signal and lower inner
digital sideband 9 of the desired signal. FIG. 3 shows only one
first-adjacent interferer. In general, there may zero, one, or two
or more first-adjacent interferers. However, the probability of two
or more first-adjacent interferers causing large amounts of
interference at a particular receiver location within the expected
coverage of the desired analog AM (and supplemental digital) signal
is small. According to the previously referenced EIA CEG DAR
laboratory test report, an AM-band IBOC DAB system similar to that
described in the '022 patent exhibited impairments in the recovered
digital audio signal when the D/U ratio was as high as about 31 dB
(.about.35:1) with digital receiver system failure (i.e. muting) at
a D/U ratio of about 28 dB. Thus, even a small amount of
first-adjacent interference may cause appreciable degradation of
the receiver performance in the '022 system.
[0019] Prior art FIG. 4 shows an interference circumstance known as
second-adjacent interference. Second-adjacent interfering AM-band
transmitters are located at frequency offsets of positive 20 kHz
and/or negative 20 kHz from desired transmitter's allocation center
frequency 1. FIG. 4 shows one interferer at positive 20 kHz offset
27, but in general, there may zero, one, two, or more
second-adjacent interferers situated at positive and negative 20
kHz offsets. FCC Rules and Regulations permit the interference
power to be about equal to the desired signal power (D/U is 0 dB or
1:1) at the edge of coverage for the desired signal. For the
second-adjacent circumstance in FIG. 4, the spectrum of interfering
analog AM signal 37 occludes a substantial part of the spectrum of
upper outer sideband 13. Correspondingly, the analog AM signal of a
second adjacent interferer at a frequency offset of -20 kHz (not
shown) would occlude part of lower outer digital sideband 11. If
the interfering transmitter also emits an IBOC DAB signal, lower
outer digital sideband 38 of the interfering transmitter's signal
spectrum substantially occludes upper inner digital sideband 5 of
the desired signal's spectrum. According to the EIA CEG DAR
laboratory test report, an AM-band IBOC DAB system similar to that
described in the '022 patent exhibited impairment of the recovered
digital audio signal at a D/U ratio of about 31 dB. In other words,
the performance of the digital signal receiver was significantly
impaired with an amount of interference that is approximately 35
times weaker than the amount of interference permitted by the FCC
Rules and Regulations at the edge of coverage. Thus, the potential
coverage of the '022 system is made substantially smaller than the
corresponding coverage of the analog AM signal by the presence of
adjacent channel AM-band transmitters, which is undesirable. In
both the first adjacent and second-adjacent circumstances, the
outer digital sidelobes may also cause interference to the
recovered conventional adjacent-channel analog AM signal because of
the spectrum overlap.
[0020] Various methods other than phase-orthogonal linear
quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) for generating a supplemental
signal were investigated for the purpose of compatible analog
AM-band stereo broadcasting. A proposal by Kahn/Hazeltine described
a system in which the left (L) and right (R) conventional analog
audio signals are represented by independent upper and lower inner
sidebands within the inner sidebands of the emissions mask
[reference: F. G. Stremler. Introduction to Communication Systems.
ibid.]; see also U.S. Pat. No. 4,589,127 to Loughlin, U.S. Pat. No.
4,124,779 to Berens, et. al., and U.S. Pat. No. 4,569,073 to Kahn.
In the Kahn system, the lower inner sideband is the single-sideband
modulated representation of the left audio signal and the upper
inner sideband represents the single-sideband modulated
representation of the right audio signal, or vice versa. Prior art
FIG. 5 is a graph which shows the spectrum of such an independent
sideband method for analog AM stereo broadcasting. Unlike
conventional analog AM signal 7 shown in prior art FIG. 1-4 in
which the analog signal sidebands are even-symmetric around center
frequency 1, inner upper 33 (right) and inner lower 31 (left)
analog signal sidebands in FIG. 5 are not symmetric, in general.
However, it is known that when a conventional analog AM signal
receiver is tuned to center frequency 1, then the monophonic (L+R)
audio signal recovered in the receiver by envelope detection will
be approximately equal to the monophonic audio signal recovered
from conventional analog AM signal 7. The implementation of analog
AM stereo broadcasting according to the Kahn/Hazeltine system
precludes the generation of a supplemental digital signal in the
upper inner or lower inner sidebands because all available
signaling dimensions are utilized, and there is substantially no
unoccupied bandwidth.
[0021] Prior art FIG. 6 shows the spectrum of an analog signal
according to the Motorola method of compatible quadrature amplitude
modulation, which is known by the trademark C-QUAM, for analog
audio stereo broadcasting in the AM-band; see also M. Temerinac,
et. al., "MF-AM stereo broadcasting: the choice of modulation,"
IEEE Transactions on Broadcasting, Vol. 25, No. 1, pp. 79-87, March
1989. In a C-QUAM.TM. analog AM-band stereo system transmitter, the
analog audio stereo difference L-R signal and analog audio stereo
sum L+R signal (i.e. the monophonic audio signal) are first
modulated with quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM). The resulting
signal is processed by an amplitude-limiter to remove amplitude
variations in the resulting signal, and the amplitude-limited
signal is subsequently amplitude-modulated by the analog audio
stereo sum signal L+R. The presence of the amplitude-limiter
results in a nonlinear method of modulation. The resulting signal's
bandwidth, as determined by the spectrum occupancy of exemplary
C-QUAM.TM. upper sideband 32 and C-QUAM.TM. lower sideband 34 in
FIG. 6, is greater than when a substantially linear method of
modulation, such as conventional amplitude modulation (AM) or
quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM), is implemented. An advantage
of the C-QUAM.TM. method for analog audio stereo broadcasting in
the AM-band is that the composite RF signal is compatible with
envelope detection receivers even when the audio stereo difference
and audio stereo sum signals are of comparable magnitude.
[0022] The described prior art '022 and '255 systems for generating
a supplemental digital signal which is compatible with AM-band
analog broadcasting have the disadvantage of a smaller potential
coverage when compared to conventional analog AM signals due to
external interference caused by co-channel and adjacent channel
AM-band transmitters. The prior art '022 system is also susceptible
to self-interference due to cross-talk under dispersive RF
propagation conditions because of the disparity in analog AM and
digital signal power and the substantial overlap in frequency
between the analog and digital signals in the inner sidebands.
Accordingly, it is apparent from the above that there exists a need
in the art of AM-compatible digital broadcasting for: (i)
generating a supplemental digital signal which has sufficient bit
information throughput for applications such as digital audio
broadcasting; (ii) generating a supplemental digital signal whose
reception is robust against the effects of frequency-selective
distortion and adjacent channel interference; (iii) generating a
supplemental digital signal whose reception is robust against the
effects of cross-talk under non-ideal RF propagation conditions;
and (iv) generating a supplemental digital signal with improved
compatibility for analog AM-band receivers with envelope
detection.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0023] This invention fulfills the above-described needs in the art
by providing a method and system for the transmission and reception
of a supplemental signal, preferably representing digital
information, together with an analog signal, preferably
representing conventional monophonic analog audio, so that the
composite RF signal, including analog and digital signals,
generated in the transmitter system is approximately confined
within the FCC emissions mask for AM-band sound broadcasting and so
that the analog signal may be received by conventional analog AM
receivers which implement envelope detection.
[0024] According to certain embodiments of this invention, in the
transmitter system, the conventional large-carrier
amplitude-modulation RF signal used to convey monophonic analog
audio information in the AM-band is replaced with an analog signal
which represents substantially the same monophonic analog audio
information as the conventional signal but which is generated as
one of the following: i) an upper inner or lower inner analog
sideband about the AM-band allocation center frequency with a large
carrier signal component, referred to as a single-sideband
large-carrier (SSB-LC) analog signal embodiment; or ii) a
vestigial-sideband large-carrier (VSB-LC) analog signal embodiment
with a large carrier signal component and an analog signal whose
spectrum occupies substantially either the upper inner or lower
inner sideband and a smaller part of the other inner sideband. The
generation of a large carrier signal component together with
appropriate generation of the single-sideband or vestigial-sideband
analog signal allows for the use of conventional analog AM
receivers (i.e. receivers meant to receive large-carrier amplitude
modulation signals in the AM-band) using envelope detection for
determination of the analog signal. In another embodiment in which
the analog signal is neither SSB-LC nor VSB-LC, a baseband digital
signal is combined with a lowpass-filtered analog monophonic audio
signal and the resulting signal is transmitted using nonlinear
compatible quadrature amplitude modulation (NC-QAM) in the upper
inner and lower inner sidebands. Although the spectrum of the
transmitted analog signal of the invention differs from
conventional AM-band analog signals, the signal conveys
substantially the same monophonic analog audio information, is
about confined within the AM-band emissions mask, and is compatible
with existing monophonic analog AM-band receivers which implement
envelope detection.
[0025] The generation of the compatible analog signal according to
the invention allows for the generation of a supplemental signal,
preferably representing digital information. According to the
certain embodiments of the invention, the spectrum of the
supplemental digital signal is able to occupy a part of the
frequency range within the center region of the AM-band emissions
mask without causing or being subject to large amounts of
interference from the analog signal. In the single-sideband
embodiment of the invention, the spectrum of the analog signal of
the invention is substantially confined within either the upper
inner or lower inner sidebands, while the other inner sideband
region is occupied by the digital signal. In the vestigial-sideband
embodiment of the invention, the spectrum of the analog signal
occupies a larger part of either the upper inner or lower inner
sideband (and a smaller part of the other inner sideband), and the
spectrum of the digital signal occupies the unoccupied part of the
other, substantially unoccupied inner sideband. In the
single-sideband and vestigial-sideband embodiments, the analog and
digital signals have no predetermined phase-relationship (in other
words, they are not necessarily phase-quadrature, however, the
analog and digital carrier signals may be coherent). In many
circumstances, the single-sideband embodiment of the invention is
preferred over the vestigial-sideband embodiment because a larger
frequency range is available for the supplemental digital signal.
The primary advantage of the vestigial-sideband embodiment is that
it may simplify implementation of the filtering in the transmitter
system.
[0026] In the NC-QAM embodiments of the invention, the analog and
digital signals are inter-related, but they are not
phase-quadrature because of the nonlinear method of modulation. An
advantage of the NC-QAM embodiments is that the digital signal in
the inner sidebands may be transmitted with more power than the
digital signal inner sideband in the single-sideband or
vestigial-sideband embodiments, without causing large amounts of
distortion in audio signals recovered by envelope detection AM
receivers. In certain embodiments, the NC-QAM signal is generated
using a modified C-QUAM.TM. analog AM-band stereo signal generator,
where the conventional left (L) audio stereo signal is replaced by
the arithmetic difference of the monophonic analog audio signal and
the digital baseband signal, and where the right (R) audio signal
input is replaced with the arithmetic sum of the monophonic analog
audio signal and the digital baseband signal, or vice versa. None
of the above-mentioned embodiments, all of which generate a digital
signal whose spectrum includes at least one inner sideband region,
are compatible with the previously referenced methods of analog AM
stereophonic broadcasting (i.e. Motorola, Harris, Kahn/Hazeltine),
so that only monophonic analog audio information may be
transmitted. However, the digital audio signal which may be
represented by the bit information in the digital signals may
include stereo information.
[0027] An advantage of the single-sideband and vestigial-sideband
embodiments of the invention is that since the spectrum of the
analog and digital signals do not significantly overlap (i.e. the
analog and digital signals are approximately frequency-orthogonal),
the digital and analog signals may be recovered independently. This
frequency-orthogonality characteristic also reduces the
susceptibility of the receiver system to cross-talk interference
due to implementation nonlinearities and dispersive RF propagation
conditions.
[0028] According to the invention, additional digital information
may be represented by the generation of signals which are
substantially confined within the upper outer and lower outer
sidebands in the AM-band emissions mask. For SSB-LC and VSB-LC
embodiments, these signals are summed together with the digital
signal in the inner sideband. The composite digital signal is
summed together with the SSB-LC or VSB-LC analog signal to
determine the composite RF signal, which is subsequently amplified,
filtered, and emitted for free-space propagation.
[0029] When NC-QAM modulation is implemented for the combined inner
sideband digital and analog signals, the inner sideband combined
digital and analog signals are summed together with the outer
sideband digital signals to determine the composite RF signal,
which is subsequently amplified, filtered, and emitted for
free-space propagation. Because of the approximate
frequency-orthogonality between the inner and outer sideband
regions, there is no requirement for a specific phase relationship
between the inner and outer sideband digital signals, in general.
However, it is preferable that digital signals in the inner and
outer sidebands have about the same symbol (baud) interval and are
generated coherently to simplify the receiver implementation.
[0030] In certain transmitter system embodiments, part of the
encoded source bit (codeword) information is redundantly
transmitted in digital signals in both the upper outer and lower
outer sidebands to combat the deleterious effects of
adjacent-channel interference and other forms of
frequency-selective interference which may affect either the upper
outer or lower outer sideband, but not both outer sidebands at
once. In certain preferable embodiments, diversity delay is
introduced between the transmission of the codeword information
which is replicated in the upper outer and lower outer sidebands,
so that the system is robust against forms of interference and
noise which affect both upper and lower outer sidebands at once,
but when such interference is of a short duration, less than the
amount of diversity delay. A sideband digital signal or baseband
digital signal includes a plurality of modulated subcarrier
waveforms, which are summed together, and may include a reference
signal. The set of subcarrier waveforms include three groups: a set
of waveforms whose spectrum is individually and as a composite
confined substantially within one sideband, either the upper inner
or lower inner sidebands for SSB-LC and VSB-LC embodiments, or a
baseband digital sideband for NC-QAM embodiments which after NC-QAM
modulation occupies both inner sidebands; a set of waveforms whose
spectrum is individually and as a composite confined substantially
within the upper outer sideband; and a set of waveforms whose
spectrum is individually and as a composite confined substantially
within the lower outer sideband. Each subcarrier modulator may make
use of one or a plurality of subcarrier waveforms (within the
sideband), for example, modulating in I&Q pairs. Different
source bit information may be represented by signals transmitted in
the inner sideband and outer sideband regions (i.e. separate
encoding/decoding steps for the inner and outer sidebands), or
preferably, encoded source bit (codeword) information symbols are
divided amongst subcarrier modulators in both the inner and outer
sidebands. For the SSB-LC and VSC-LC embodiments, the transmitted
digital signals have substantially less power than the transmitted
analog signal (including the large-carrier signal component). For
NC-QAM embodiments, the outer sideband digital signals have
substantially less power than the combined analog and digital
signals in the inner sidebands. However, the baseband digital
signal and monophonic audio signal components in the nonlinear
NC-QAM signal in the inner sidebands may be transmitted with
comparable amounts of power.
[0031] Each digital sideband or baseband signal is a composite
signal which is generated by known methods of digital modulation,
error correction encoding, and source information encoding. For
example, suitable methods of digital modulation include, but are
not limited to, prior art multi-carrier OFDM modulation and
multi-carrier shaped spread spectrum modulation. In general,
modulation methods which use a plurality of modulated subcarriers
(multi-carrier) are preferred, with effective symbol intervals
greater than about 1 millisecond and less than about 100
milliseconds, because of their greater immunity to impulse
interference and sky-wave multipath propagation than single-carrier
modulation methods. The presence of impulse interference is common
in the reception of AM-band signals due to various man-made (e.g.
spark-noise) and atmospheric (e.g. lightning) noise sources.
Sky-wave interference in the AM-band is caused by RF signal
reflections from the ionosphere, primarily at night. Typical
methods of error correction encoding include, but are not limited
to, convolutional encoding, trellis encoding, pragmatic trellis
encoding, and block encoding. In certain embodiments, the digital
modulation method implemented operates at an effective average user
source bit information density of between about 2 bits/Hz/sec and 5
bits/Hz/sec, preferably closer to 3 bits/Hz/sec, using for example,
rate 3/4 16-ary pragmatic trellis-coded modulation (PTCM). For
digital audio applications, the desired user source bit throughput
is between about 48-64 kbit/sec, which with a user bit information
density of about 3 bits/Hz/sec (e.g. rate 3/4 16-ary PTCM),
requires between about 16-21 kHz of bandwidth (not including
spectrum occupied by the redundant outer sideband and analog
signal). In certain embodiments of the invention, the source bit
rate throughput is about equally divided between digital signals in
the inner sidebands of the emissions mask and digital signals in
the outer sidebands (the encoded bit throughput of the outer
sidebands is larger because of the replication of the information
in both outer sidebands).
[0032] In the receiver system of the invention, the supplemental
digital signal is detected and determined using demodulation and
decoding methods which correspond to those implemented in the
transmitter system. Bandpass filtering is used to separate the
outer sideband digital signals from the composite RF signal, which
also includes the SSB-LC or VSB-LC analog signal or combined NC-QAM
inner sideband digital and analog signals, in the receiver system.
After bandpass filtering, the outer sideband digital signals are
demodulated and determined using known methods of digital
demodulation, error correction decoding, and source information
decoding. In certain embodiments, the large-carrier signal
component of the analog signal is used to recover the digital
signal carrier frequency in the receiver system, and a transmitted
reference signal is used to recover the baud (symbol) clock and/or
to facilitate equalization. For SSB-LC and VSB-LC embodiments,
bandpass filtering may also be implemented to separate the inner
sideband digital and analog signals. However, for NC-QAM
embodiments, the combined analog and digital signal is first
demodulated using nonlinear NC-QAM demodulation methods in order to
determine an estimate of the transmitted baseband digital signal in
the NC-QAM combined signal. After nonlinear separation for NC-QAM
demodulation, the baseband digital signal is subsequently
demodulated using methods similar to those for the demodulation of
an inner sideband digital signal.
[0033] When part of the codeword information is replicated in both
the upper outer and lower outer sidebands, with or without
diversity delay, the receiver system of the invention is able to
select between determined source bit estimates for each at least
partially redundantly transmitted codeword, or combine estimated
bit information from the demodulation of the upper outer and lower
outer sidebands to determine a combined source bit estimate,
dynamically on a codeword-by-codeword basis according to methods
described in co-pending U.S. patent application 08/666,985 to
Kumar.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0034] FIG. 1 is a prior art graph of the RF emissions mask for
analog audio transmissions in the AM-band according to the FCC
Rules and Regulations. FIG. 1 also illustrates the spectrum of a
conventional large-carrier amplitude modulation (AM) signal
representing monophonic (L+R) analog audio information.
[0035] FIG. 2 is a prior art graph of the spectrum of a digital
signal and conventional analog AM signal generated by an In-band
On-channel (IBOC) transmitter system according to U.S. Pat. No.
5,588,022 to Dapper, et. al.
[0036] FIG. 3 is a prior art graph which shows a first-adjacent
interference circumstance. The spectrum of the interfering analog
AM signal significantly occludes the upper digital sidebands in the
desired signal's spectrum and deleteriously affects the lower inner
digital sideband.
[0037] FIG. 4 is a prior art graph which shows a second-adjacent
interference circumstance. The spectrum of the interfering analog
AM signal and interfering digital signal significantly occludes the
upper digital sidebands in the desired signal's spectrum.
[0038] FIG. 5 is a prior art graph of the spectrum of an AM-band
analog stereophonic audio signal according to the Kahn/Hazeltine
system proposal. The right (R) and left (L) analog audio signals
are represented as independent upper and lower sidebands.
[0039] FIG. 6 is a prior art graph of the spectrum of an AM-band
analog stereophonic audio signal according to the Motorola
C-QUAM.TM. method of modulation. Nonlinear upper and lower
sidebands represent the combination of an analog audio sum L+R
signal and analog audio difference L-R signal.
[0040] FIG. 7 is a graph of the spectrum of the analog and digital
signals according to one embodiment of the invention. The
AM-compatible analog signal includes a large carrier signal
component and a modulated analog signal whose spectrum is confined
substantially within either the upper inner or lower inner
sideband. The spectrum of the digital signal substantially occupies
the other inner sideband. Additional bit information is represented
by digital signals whose spectrum is confined in the upper outer
and lower outer sidebands. Part of the source bit information is
replicated by modulated signals in both the upper outer and lower
outer sidebands.
[0041] FIG. 8 is a graph of the spectrum of the analog and digital
signals according to the FIG. 7 embodiment of the invention with
the addition of diversity delay between the transmission of the
encoded source bit information replicas in the upper outer and
lower outer digital sidebands.
[0042] FIG. 9 is a graph of the spectrum of the analog and digital
signals according to another embodiment (vestigial-sideband) of the
invention. In the FIG. 8 graph, the AM-compatible SSB-LC analog
signal includes a large carrier signal component and substantially
either the upper inner or lower inner sideband. In the FIG. 9
graph, the AM-compatible analog signal includes a large carrier
signal component and a vestigial-sideband analog signal which
occupies a larger part of either the upper inner or lower inner
sideband and a smaller part of the other inner sideband. Digital
signals occupy the upper outer and lower outer sidebands and the
majority of the inner sideband which is not substantially occupied
by the analog signal.
[0043] FIG. 10 is a graph of the spectrum of the analog and digital
signals according to another embodiment of the invention. The outer
sideband digital signals are as shown in FIG. 8-9. The inner
sideband signals represent combined analog and digital information
and correspond to nonlinear compatible quadrature amplitude
modulation (NC-QAM) of the baseband digital signal and
lowpass-filtered monophonic audio signal.
[0044] FIG. 11 is a block diagram of a certain embodiment of the
transmitter system of the invention. An AM-compatible
single-sideband large-carrier or vestigial-sideband large-carrier
analog signal is generated and combined with digital signals whose
spectrum is within one of the inner sidebands and digital signals
whose spectrum is within the upper outer and lower outer sidebands.
Diversity delay is implemented between the transmission of
replicated codeword information in the upper outer and lower outer
sideband digital signals.
[0045] FIG. 12 is a block diagram of part of the FIG. 11
transmitter system of the invention according to certain
embodiments in which an IF representation of the composite signal
is separated into in-phase (I) and quadrature (Q) signals and
re-modulated at the desired RF carrier frequency prior to
amplification and emission.
[0046] FIG. 13 is a block diagram of the source bit encoder
according to an embodiment of the invention. Source bit information
is scrambled, encoded with forward error correction (FEC)
redundancy information, interleaved, and divided into symbols for
modulation of waveforms in the inner sideband or baseband digital
signal (D1) or outer sideband (D2).
[0047] FIG. 14 is a block diagram of a baseband, inner, or outer
sideband composite digital signal modulator showing a plurality of
subcarrier modulators whose output signals are summed together to
determine the sideband composite digital signal, which may also
include an additive reference signal. Each subcarrier modulator
emits a signal determined from modulating one or a plurality of
subcarrier waveforms according to codeword modulation symbols.
[0048] FIG. 15 is a block diagram of the processes, preferably
implemented with digital circuits and arithmetic, used to generate
an AM-compatible single-sideband analog signal including a large
carrier component from a conventional baseband analog audio
signal.
[0049] FIG. 16 is a block diagram of the filtering, preferably
implemented with digital circuits and arithmetic, used to generate
an AM-compatible vestigial-sideband analog signal including a large
carrier signal component from a conventional baseband analog audio
signal.
[0050] FIG. 17 is a block diagram of another embodiment of the
transmitter system of the invention. A baseband digital signal is
combined with a monophonic audio signal, and nonlinear compatible
quadrature amplitude modulation is used to generate inner sideband
combined signals. Further digital signals are generated in the
outer sidebands with replicated codeword information. Diversity
delay is implemented between the transmission of replicated
codeword information in the upper outer and lower outer sideband
digital signals.
[0051] FIG. 18 is a block diagram of the receiver system according
to an embodiment of the invention. Information from the
demodulation of the inner digital sideband signal is separately
combined with information from the demodulation of the upper outer
and lower outer sideband digital signals after diversity delay
compensation. A codeword diversity selector selects between two
estimated codewords (or equivalently, two source bit estimates) for
each at least partially redundantly transmitted codeword
dynamically on a codeword-by-codeword basis, or in certain
circumstances, combines codeword modulation symbol estimates and
decodes.
[0052] FIG. 19 is a block diagram of the subcarrier demodulators
corresponding to subcarrier modulators in the FIG. 18 transmitter
system. The received composite signal is correlated with the
subcarrier waveforms in each sideband demodulator.
[0053] FIG. 20 is a block diagram of the receiver system according
to another embodiment of the invention when nonlinear compatible
quadrature amplitude modulation (NC-QAM) is implemented in the
corresponding transmitter system. The combined inner sideband
digital and analog signals are separated by NC-QAM demodulation.
The demodulation of the outer sideband digital signals and
remaining processes, after inner sideband combined signal
demodulation, are as in the FIG. 18 receiver system.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF CERTAIN EMBODIMENTS OF THIS INVENTION
[0054] Referring now more particularly to the accompanying drawings
in which like reference numerals indicate like parts throughout the
several views.
[0055] FIG. 7-10 are graphs which show the spectrum of the
transmitted analog and digital signals according to certain
embodiments of the transmitter invention. In FIG. 7, an analog
signal which represents substantially the same monophonic analog
audio information as a conventional large-carrier amplitude
modulation (AM) signal is generated so that its spectrum 37 is
substantially confined within either upper inner sideband 5 or
lower inner sideband 9 within FCC AM-band emissions mask 3,
arbitrarily shown in FIG. 7 as within upper inner sideband 5.
Analog signal 37 includes a large carrier signal component whose
frequency is AM-band allocation center frequency 1. The
representation of analog signal 37 in FIG. 7 is described as
single-sideband large-carrier (SSB-LC). The (baseband) bandwidth of
the monophonic analog audio signal represented by analog signal 37
is less than about 10.2 kHz and in many embodiments is constrained
via lowpass filtering in the transmitter system to be between about
5 kHz and about 7 kHz. Reduction of the baseband analog audio
bandwidth in the transmitter system typically does not cause
significant distortion for large numbers of AM-band analog
receivers, especially automobile receivers, because many such
receivers include lowpass filtering which limits the recovered
audio bandwidth to less than about 5 kHz.
[0056] Since SSB-LC signal 37, which is the analog signal, is
substantially confined within either the upper inner or lower inner
sideband, supplemental digital signal 45 may be generated so that
its spectrum is substantially confined within the other inner
sideband. The spectrum of analog SSB-LC signal 37 and digital
signal 45 do not overlap, except possibly over small frequency
regions at the edges of the analog and digital signal spectra. The
bandwidth of the waveforms in digital signal 45 are constrained by
design so that the bit error rate determined in the digital signal
receiver due to such spectrum overlap, if any, is substantially
less than the expected operating bit error rate in ordinary
receiving conditions.
[0057] In addition to digital signal 45, further digital signals 39
and 41 may be generated so that their spectrum is substantially
confined within the lower outer and upper outer sidebands,
respectively. The spectrum of digital signals 39 and 41 do not
significantly overlap with the spectrum of digital signal 45 nor
analog signal 37. When the spectrum of digital signals 41 and 39
occupy substantially all of the upper outer and lower outer
sidebands, the aggregate bandwidth occupied by the analog and
digital signals together, which is the composite RF signal, is
about 40 kHz (i.e. .+-.20 kHz from AM-band allocation center
frequency 1). In certain embodiments, it is preferable that the
spectrum of digital signals 41 and 39 in the upper outer and lower
outer sidebands be confined so that the composite signal bandwidth
is closer to 30 kHz than 40 kHz in order to reduce the potential
for mutual interference between the outer sideband digital signals
and second adjacent channel analog AM-band transmissions or third
adjacent supplemental digital signals, especially under conditions
of "sky-wave" propagation.
[0058] In FIG. 7, encoded source bit (codeword) information is
represented by the digital modulation of waveforms whose spectrum
is substantially confined in upper outer, lower outer, and either
upper inner or lower inner sidebands. According to an embodiment of
the invention, the part of the codeword information which is
represented by the modulation of waveforms whose spectrum is
substantially confined in the lower outer sideband is also used to
modulate waveforms whose spectrum is substantially confined in the
upper outer sideband, resulting in-replication of part of the
codeword information in both outer sidebands. Replication of part
of the codeword information does not necessarily imply generating
the same RF signal in the upper outer and lower outer sidebands.
For example, different interleaving, different bit-to-subcarrier
mapping, or different bit-to-symbol mappings may be implemented for
the digital modulation in the upper outer and lower outer sidebands
for the partially replicated codeword information. Such variations,
all of which substantially replicate part of the transmitted
codeword information in the upper outer and lower outer sidebands,
are considered within the scope of the transmitter system of the
invention.
[0059] The transmitted power of digital signals 39, 41, and 45 is
significantly less than the power in analog signal 37 (which
includes a large carrier signal component). In many circumstances,
the amount of power in the digital signals is less than the amount
of power in the analog signal by between about 10 decibels and 25
decibels. The amount of power in the digital signals may be
adjusted, while retaining approximate compliance with the AM-band
emissions mask, according to the tradeoff between desired coverage
of the digital signal and the apparent increase in noise in the
recovered analog signal caused by the existence of the digital
signals. AM-band receivers are typically implemented with envelope
detectors which, when combined with filters, are responsive to
energy in a specific range of frequencies. In particular, envelope
detectors are responsive to both in-phase and quadrature signal
components. As the digital signal power is increased, the coverage
provided by the digital signal increases commensurately, but the
apparent amount of noise in the recovered analog signal may also
increase. An advantage of the transmitter invention with the FIG. 7
spectrum is that new AM-band analog receiver designs may utilize
conventional envelope detection by including a bandpass filter
which substantially attenuates the effect of the digital signals
(e.g. propagating substantially only the upper inner sideband in
FIG. 7). The amount of power in the digital signal may be increased
over time as more digital signal receivers and/or new analog
receivers become commercially available. At some future time, when
the transition from analog to digital services is substantially
complete, the analog signal may be omitted (except in digital
signal receiver embodiments which require the large carrier signal
component for frequency tracking) and the digital signal
transmitted at an increased power level, closer to the maximum
allowable FCC-licensed power.
[0060] FIG. 8 is a graph which shows the spectrum of the analog and
digital signals according to another embodiment of the transmitter
invention. Analog signal 37 and inner sideband digital signal 45
are as in the FIG. 7 embodiment. In FIG. 8, part of the codeword
information is replicated in the modulation of digital signals in
the upper outer and lower outer sidebands. However, unlike FIG. 7,
additional delay, referred to as "diversity delay", is introduced
between the transmission of the replicated codeword information in
the upper outer and lower outer sidebands. Diversity delay may be
introduced in either the generation of the upper outer or lower
outer sideband digital signals. When diversity delay is
implemented, part of the codeword information is replicated in both
the upper outer and lower outer sideband digital signals, but not
at the same instant in time. The advantage of diversity delay is
that it improves the robustness of the system when deleterious
interference affects both upper outer and lower outer sideband
digital signals at once, but when such interference is of a short
duration. When diversity delay is implemented, even when both upper
outer and lower outer sideband digital signals are deleteriously
affected for a short duration of time, the codeword (and source
bit) information may be accurately recovered in the receiver system
from the received digital signal in either the upper outer or lower
outer sidebands, or from the delayed replica of the information in
the other outer sideband digital signal, whichever is less likely
to be affected by such transient interference. Diversity delay is
not effective in combating forms of interference and distortion
which do not change over time, for example, when the receiver is
substantially stationary. The use of diversity delay in the
transmitter system causes the RF signals generated in the upper
outer and lower outer sidebands to differ at any time, despite the
replication of substantially the same codeword information in both
outer sideband digital signals.
[0061] In order to accomplish diversity delay, the D2 codeword
information, or corresponding modulated digital signals, for either
the upper outer or lower outer sideband digital signals is delayed
with respect to the replicated codeword information in the other
outer sideband, or preferably, the D1 codeword information for the
inner sideband digital signals and the D2 codeword information for
either the upper outer or lower outer sideband signals is delayed.
The latter embodiment (i.e. delay of inner and only one of the
outer sideband digital signals) is preferable because it minimizes
the amount of compensation delay which is implemented in the
corresponding receiver system. The implementation of the receiver
system is more cost-sensitive than the implementation of the
transmitter system.
[0062] FIG. 9 is a graph which shows the spectrum of the analog and
digital signals according to another embodiment of the transmitter
system which differs from FIG. 7-8 in the generation the analog
signal. In FIG. 9, the upper outer and lower outer sideband digital
signals 41 and 39 are generated as described previously for FIG.
7-8, with replication of part of the codeword information in the
upper outer and lower outer sidebands, with or without diversity
delay. However, the spectrum of analog signal 37 in the inner
sideband which is substantially occupied by the analog signal in
FIG. 9 differs from the analog signal in the FIG. 7-8 embodiment.
The FIG. 9 analog signal also includes small part 49 of the inner
sideband which is occupied by inner sideband digital signal 45. As
a result, the spectrum of inner sideband digital signal 45 is
confined to a smaller frequency range in order to avoid significant
spectrum overlap with smaller part 49 of the analog signal. The
representation of the analog signal in FIG. 9 is described as
vestigial-sideband large-carrier (VSB-LC) in contrast the FIG. 7-8
single-sideband large-carrier (SSB-LC) analog signal embodiment.
The VSB-LC analog signal includes a large carrier signal component
and an analog signal whose spectrum is mostly or substantially
confined within either the upper inner or lower inner sideband, but
which has non-spurious spectrum in both upper inner and lower inner
sidebands. In certain circumstances, it may be simpler to implement
the required filtering in the transmitter and receiver systems for
the VSB-LC representation of the analog signal than for the SSB-LC
representation.
[0063] FIG. 10 is a graph which shows the spectrum of the analog
and digital signals according to another embodiment of the
transmitter invention. Outer sideband digital signals 39 and 41 are
as described in FIG. 7-9, without or preferably with diversity
delay between the transmission of the replicated part of the
codeword information represented by the modulated digital signals
in the outer sidebands. However, unlike FIG. 7-9, the analog signal
in FIG. 10 occupies both inner sideband regions of emissions mask
3. Furthermore, the inner sideband digital signal also occupies
both inner sideband regions of emissions mask 3. Since the analog
and inner sideband digital signals occupy substantially the same
spectrum, they are necessarily inter-related. Thus, signal 44 in
the upper inner sideband and signal 46 in the lower inner sideband
each represent the combination of the analog and a digital signal.
Sidebands 44 and 46 are in general not symmetric. In the
corresponding transmitter system, a baseband digital signal is
combined with a monophonic analog audio signal using nonlinear
compatible quadrature amplitude modulation (NC-QAM) to improve
compatibility with monophonic AM-band analog signal receivers with
envelope detection. Because of the nonlinear relationship, the
inner sideband digital signal is not phase-quadrature to the analog
signal. An advantage of the FIG. 10 embodiment is that the digital
baseband signal may be transmitted at a power level comparable to
that of the monophonic audio signal because the combined signal is
pre-distorted by NC-QAM modulation to be compatible with envelope
detection receivers, unlike the inner sideband digital signal in
the FIG. 7-9 SSB-LC or VSB-LC embodiments, in which the inner
sideband digital signal is transmitted with a smaller amount of
power to improve analog signal receiver compatibility.
[0064] In the FIG. 7-10 graphs of the composite RF signal spectrum
for the transmitter system embodiments, the inner sideband digital
signals may be omitted, or the redundantly modulated outer sideband
signals may be omitted, depending upon the required bit throughput.
In general, both inner and outer sideband digital signals are
desirable when a relatively large throughput is required for the
given bandwidth, for example, greater than about 32 kbit/sec.
[0065] FIG. 11 is a block diagram of a transmitter system according
to the invention for the FIG. 7-9 analog signal embodiments.
Conventional monophonic analog audio signal 51 is lowpass-filtered
55 to substantially attenuate frequencies greater than about 7 kHz.
Filtered audio signal 53 is digitized with analog-to-digital
converter (ADC) 57 to generate digital representation 59 of the
filtered analog audio signal. The number of bits in digital
representation 59 of the analog signal is at least eight bits, and
preferably at least 12 bits. The sampling frequency (i.e.
reciprocal of the sampling interval) for ADC 57 is larger than
twice the Nyquist frequency for analog signal 53 and in many
circumstances is significantly higher. In a preferred embodiment,
the sampling rate for converter 57 corresponds to a value which is
a multiplicative factor of two (2) or a factor of four (4) of the
intermediate frequency (IF) value which is used to represent the
composite IF signal carrier frequency. The composite IF signal
includes the analog signal and digital sideband signals. When the
composite signal is generated with digital devices and complex
digital arithmetic (i.e. real and imaginary values), the nominal
sampling frequency is twice the IF frequency value. When the
composite signal is generated with real-valued digital arithmetic,
the nominal sampling frequency is a factor of four of the IF
frequency value. After digitization 57, the filtered analog signal
is propagated to signal generator 61, which emits a digital
representation of the analog signal according to either the
single-sideband large-carrier (SSB-LC) or vestigial-sideband
large-carrier (VSB-LC) transmitter embodiments. Methods of
generating SSB-LC or VSB-LC analog signals which are compatible
with conventional AM-band analog receivers are described later in
this disclosure.
[0066] The intermediate frequency, f.sub.IF, is a frequency around
which the composite signal is generated in the transmitter system,
for example as shown in spectrum graph 100 in FIG. 11. Typically
the intermediate frequency is significantly less than the desired
allocation center-frequency f.sub.c in order to simplify the
implementation of the transmitter and/or receiver systems (i.e. by
using lower clock frequencies and/or sampling rates). After
generation of the composite IF signal at an intermediate frequency,
the resulting signal is frequency-translated to the desired RF
frequency range prior to RF emission. In order to accommodate the
analog and digital signals, which may span a two-sided bandwidth of
up to about 40 kHz in certain embodiments, the IF frequency value
is at least 20 kHz. The IF frequency may be arbitrarily large, but
increasing the IF frequency generally increases the complexity of a
digital circuit implementation. On the other hand, a higher IF
frequency typically simplifies the implementation of filtering in
RF up-converter 99, described subsequently. The choice of the
implemented IF frequency in the transmitter system design involves
a trade-off between the complexity of those subsystems which
precede RF up-converter 99 and the design of RF up-converter 99
itself.
[0067] In FIG. 11, encoded source bit (codeword) information has
been previously divided into groups of codeword symbols which are
to be represented by digitally modulated waveforms in the outer and
inner sidebands. Those codeword symbols which are to be represented
by the digital modulation of waveforms whose spectrum is confined
in the outer sidebands are labeled as D2 message 75. Those codeword
symbols which are to be represented by the digital modulation of
waveforms whose spectrum is confined in the inner sideband or
sidebands are labeled as D1 message 65. D1 message 65 is propagated
to inner sideband D1 signal generator 67. In certain diversity
delay embodiments, D1 message 65 is delayed 48, and delayed D1
message 52 is propagated to signal generator 67. As described
previously, it is preferable to delay the codeword symbols for the
inner sideband digital signals and for either the upper outer or
lower outer sideband digital signals (rather than delaying only
either the lower outer or upper outer sideband information), in
order to simplify the implementation of the compensating delay in
the corresponding receiver system. Signal generator 67 includes one
or a plurality of inner sideband subcarrier modulators, described
subsequently. Signal generator 67 emits composite inner sideband
digital signal 69, whose spectrum is substantially confined within
either the upper inner or lower inner sideband (i.e. whichever one
is not substantially occupied by the SSB-LC or VSB-LC analog
signal). Similarly, D2 message 75 is propagated to upper outer
sideband D2 signal generator 71. In certain diversity delay
embodiments, D2 message 75 is delayed 77, and delayed D2 message 79
is propagated to signal generator 71. Delay 77 may be implemented
for lower outer sideband signal generator 81 (not shown). Delays
48, 77, when implemented, represent the same amount of time (bits).
Upper outer sideband signal generator 71 emits upper outer sideband
digital signal 73, which may include one or a plurality of
modulated upper outer sideband subcarrier signals. D2 message 75 is
also propagated to lower outer sideband D2 signal generator 81.
Signal generator 81 emits lower outer sideband digital signal 83,
which may include one or a plurality of modulated subcarrier
signals. Diversity delays 48, 77 may be implemented prior to, or
after digital modulation of the subcarrier waveforms within the
respective sideband signal generators 67, 71. In general, it is
preferable to implement diversity delays 48, 77 prior to signal
generators 67, 71 in order to minimize the amount of digital memory
for implementing such delay. When diversity delays 48, 77 are
implemented, it is preferable that the length of delays 48, 77 in
bits be equal to an integer multiple of the codeword length in
bits.
[0068] In FIG. 11, SSB-LC or VSB-LC digital representation 63 of
monophonic audio signal 51 is summed 85 together with inner
sideband digital signal 69, upper outer sideband digital signal 73,
and lower outer sideband digital signal 83 to determine composite
IF signal 87. Composite IF signal 87 is converted to an analog
representation by digital-to-analog converter (DAC) 91 with
subsequent anti-aliasing lowpass filter 78. The number of bits in
DAC 91 is at least eight bits. After conversion 91 and filtering,
78 composite IF signal 89 is frequency-translated to the desired
AM-band channel allocation center frequency in RF up-converter 99.
Methods for the implementation of RF up-converter 99 are known. In
a typical RF up-converter, an IF signal is mixed (multiplied) with
a sinusoidal carrier signal whose frequency is the difference
between the desired RF carrier frequency and the IF carrier
frequency (i.e. f.sub.c-f.sub.IF). After frequency mixing, the
resulting signal is filtered to substantially eliminate the
difference frequency image (i.e. f.sub.c-f.sub.IF-f.sub.IF), so
that the desired frequency-translation is accomplished at the sum
frequency (i.e. f.sub.c) In certain substantially digital
embodiments, RF up-converter 99 precedes DAC 91. After
up-conversion 99, composite RF signal 97 is amplified in high-power
broadcast linear amplifier 93, bandpass-filtered 95, and propagated
to an antenna distribution system for emission into free-space. In
certain embodiments, prior to amplification in linear power
amplifier 93, composite RF signal 97 may be separated into a
carrier phase-modulation component and an amplitude-modulation
component, depending upon the interface requirements for linear
power amplifier 93. In other embodiments, the digital
representation of the IF/RF signal may be directly interfaced to
the transmitter amplifier for digitally-modulated amplifiers; for
example, see U.S. Pat. No. 4,580,111 to Swanson. Linear power
amplifier 93 has relatively low distortion and wide bandwidth (i.e.
at least about .+-.20 kHz about center frequency 1) in order to
pass composite RF signal 97 without introducing significant
artifacts. Suitable linear power amplifiers for use with this
invention include the Harris Broadcast DX series of AM-band
low-distortion amplifiers.
[0069] In FIG. 11, composite IF signal 87 at f.sub.IF is
frequency-translated to desired AM-band channel allocation center
frequency f.sub.c in RF up-converter 99. When the intermediate
frequency is close to the minimum value, for example, 20 kHz, it
may be difficult to implement the bandpass filtering in RF
up-converter 99. Another up-converter embodiment is shown in FIG.
12. Composite IF signal 87 may be separated into in-phase (I) and
quadrature (Q) signal components with respect to a carrier signal
with frequency f.sub.IF in I&Q separator 92. For example, when
the sampling frequency is four times the IF frequency, I&Q
separator 92 may be implemented with polarity inverters and
multiplexors. Exemplary sequence of IF samples IF0, IF1, IF2, IF3,
IF4, IF5, IF6, IF7, and so on, corresponds to I sequence +IF0,
-IF2, +IF4, -IF6, and so on, and Q sequence +IF1, -IF3, +IF5, -IF7,
and so on. After separation, the resulting I and Q signals are
converted to analog signals in dual digital-to-analog converters
(DACs) 96 with subsequent filtering in dual lowpass filters 98, one
DAC/filter for each of the I and Q signals. The device
characteristics of dual DACs 96 are substantially the same, and the
device characteristics of dual lowpass filters 98 are substantially
the same. The filtered I and Q analog signals are propagated to
I&Q modulator 94, in which the signals are separately mixed
(multiplied) with in-phase and quadrature RF sinusoidal carrier
signals at frequency f.sub.c, which are generated by dual direct
digital synthesizer (DDS) 90, and then summed together (also within
modulator 94) to determine composite RF signal 97. Dual DDS 90
includes dual numerically-controlled oscillators (NCOs), dual DACs,
and dual lowpass filters; for example, two AD9850 DDS integrated
circuits, which are available from Analog Devices, Inc., One
Technology Way, P.O. Box 9106, Norwood, Mass., 02062, with external
filters and a common clocking signal.
[0070] FIG. 13 is a block diagram of the typical processes used to
generate encoded source bit (codeword) messages D1 65 and D2 75
shown in FIG. 11. Source bit message 101 is a sequence of bits of
possibly infinite-length which represents the user digital
information. The objective of the system of the invention is to
convey source message 101 from the transmitter system to one or a
plurality of digital signal receivers so that source message 101
may be reconstructed in such receivers at a reasonable bit error
rate (BER), typically a corrected BER of less than
1.times.10.sup.-6 for digital audio applications under reasonable
AM-band propagation and noise conditions. Source message 101 may
represent general digital information or, in certain embodiments, a
source-compressed digital audio signal, or a combination of a
digital audio signal and ancillary data. Suitable digital audio
compression algorithms for representing high fidelity audio
information with audio bandwidths greater than 12 kHz at bit rates
between 32 kbit/sec and 64 kbit/sec are known, for example, ISO
MPEG layer III [reference: K. Brandenburg and M. Bosi, "Overview of
MPEG-audio: current and future standards for low bit-rate audio
coding," 99th AES Convention, New York, preprint, 4130 F1, October
6-9, pp. 1-26, 1995; N. S. Jayant and E. Y. Chen, "Audio
compression: technology and applications," AT&T Technical
Journal, pp. 23-34, March/April 1995] and RealAudio compression
technology from Progressive Networks, Inc., 1111 3rd Ave, Suite
2900, Seattle, Wash. 98101.
[0071] Source message 101 is typically scrambled 103 in order to
substantially eliminate long patterns of consecutive binary ones or
binary zeros and to cause binary digits zero and one to have
approximately equal probabilities of occurrence. Scrambling 103
establishes a bisection between source message 101 and scrambled
source message 105 in the transmitter system which may be reversed
in the corresponding receiver system. Scrambling is typically
accomplished by processing source message 101 according to a binary
polynomial of a certain kind, known as m-sequences or PN-sequences.
After scrambling, the (scrambled) source bit information is encoded
to add redundancy information in ECC encoder 107. ECC encoder 107
implements known methods of forward error correction (FEC), for
example, Reed-Solomon block encoding, convolutional code encoding,
turbo-codes, and/or pragmatic trellis code encoding. The function
of ECC encoder 107 is to add FEC redundancy to the scrambled source
bit information so that after corresponding ECC decoding in the
receiver system, the recovered source message is less likely to be
erroneous than if forward error correction had not been
implemented. In certain embodiments, the average ECC code rate is
between about rate 2/3 and rate {fraction (4/5,)} preferably close
to rate {fraction (3/4.)} After including FEC redundancy in ECC
encoder 107, resulting message 109 is known as a codeword.
According to certain embodiments of the transmitter invention, when
the FEC method implemented for ECC encoder 107 is a convolutional
or pragmatic trellis code, each generated codeword is truncated at
a predetermined number of bits by terminating the encoder after a
predetermined number of bits at a known state, for example, all
zeroes. A predetermined bit length for each generated codeword is
necessary for operation of the diversity receiver according to the
invention, so that the estimated source bit information from two
codewords of predetermined length may be selected between or the
codeword information may be combined and decoded. The codeword
length is chosen to be sufficiently large that the bit overhead for
properly terminating the encoder is a small fraction of the overall
codeword length, for example, less than about 5 percent. In many
embodiments, it is preferable that the codeword length be at least
100 bits. Block code FEC methods such as Reed-Solomon encoding
inherently have a predetermined bit length (i.e. the block length)
so that truncation of the codeword is not necessary; however, a
block code may be "shortened". In certain embodiments of the
invention, ECC encoder 107 is implemented using rate 3/4 pragmatic
trellis-coded modulation (PTCM) with 16-ary phase-shift keying
(16-ary PSK) digital modulation in corresponding sideband signal
generators 67, 71, and 81 [reference: A. J. Viterbi, J. K. Wolf, E.
Zehavi, and R. Padovani, "A pragmatic approach to trellis-coded
modulation," IEEE Communications Magazine, Vol. 27, No. 7, pp.
11-19, July 1989]; see also the Q1875 pragmatic trellis decoder
technical data sheet from Qualcomm Incorporated, VLSI Products,
6455 Lusk Boulevard, San Diego, Calif. In this embodiment, the
effective source bit information density is about 3 bits/Hz/sect
which requires between about 16-21 kHz of (unique) bandwidth for a
source bit rate between about 48-64 kbit/sec, not including the
redundantly encoded outer sideband. In certain embodiments, each
subcarrier modulator makes use of two orthogonal waveforms. In each
pairwise modulator, one of the subcarrier waveforms is considered
as an in-phase (I) signal and the other subcarrier waveform is
considered as a quadrature (Q) signal. When narrowband subcarriers
are implemented (e.g. OFDM), subcarrier waveforms in a pair have
the same frequency but a quadrature (i.e. 90.degree.) phase
relationship, and the I and Q labels have direct meaning. However,
for wideband, mutually orthogonal subcarrier waveforms, the
subcarriers may be arbitrarily grouped as orthogonal pairs (within
each sideband), where the I and Q designations are arbitrary within
each pair.
[0072] In many embodiments, ECC encoder 107 may include multiple
encoding steps, for example, a first outer (i.e. closer to source
message 101) block code, such as a high code rate Reed-Solomon or
BCH block, and a second lower code rate inner (i.e. closest to the
RF channel) trellis or convolutional code with or without
interleaving between encoding steps, known as concatenated
coding.
[0073] After encoding 107, encoded source bit information 109 is
propagated to symbol interleaver 111. Symbol interleaver 111
shuffles consecutive modulation symbols (each of which consists of
one or a plurality of bits, for example, 4-bit symbols for rate 3/4
16-ary PTCM), so that such symbols are dispersed across a larger
interval of time. Interleaving 111 in the transmitter system with
corresponding de-interleaving in the receiver system improves the
system performance due to transient interference and noise
phenomena. Interleaving is typically implemented with a
random-access digital memory and a shuffling algorithm [reference:
J. L. Ramsey, "Realization of optimum interleavers," IEEE
Transactions on Information Theory, Vol. 16, No. 3, pp. 338-345,
May 1970]. Interleaving is not compatible with all methods of ECC
encoding 107, but is compatible with, at least, Reed-Solomon block
encoding when the interleaver symbol size is a positive integer
multiple of the Galois field size in bits, convolutional encoding,
and pragmatic trellis-coded modulation encoding. For AM-band
broadcast applications, the maximum length (in time) of symbol
interleaver 111, known as the interleaver frame length, is
constrained by i) the amount of digital memory which may be
economically implemented for corresponding deinterleaving in the
receiver system, and ii) the maximum desired acquisition time of
the receiver. In many embodiments, the frame length for symbol
interleaver 111 corresponds to an integer multiple of the codeword
length in bits. The frame length typically corresponds to between
about 10 milliseconds and 500 milliseconds in time, preferably
closer to 100-200 milliseconds. When diversity delays 48, 77 are
implemented in the transmitter system, it is preferable that the
diversity delay length (in bits or time) be at least as large as
the symbol interleaver length in order to maximize the amount of
time between the transmitted replicas of part of the codeword
information. For example, when the frame length for symbol
interleaver 111 corresponds to a plurality of 10 codewords, the
amount of delay in diversity delays 48, 77, when implemented,
preferably corresponds to at least 10 codewords. In many
embodiments, convolutional (continuous) interleaving methods, also
known as fixed step delay methods of interleaving, are preferred
over block interleaving because it simplifies synchronization
between the transmitter system interleaver and receiver system
deinterleaver.
[0074] After interleaving ill, resulting shuffled encoded source
bit message 113, in other words, the interleaved sequence of
codewords, is a sequence of modulation symbols, each of which
includes one or a plurality of bits. The modulation symbols are
separated in D1, D2 separator 115 into two further sequences 65 and
75 of modulation symbols. Sequence 65 of modulation symbols is
defined as the "D1" encoded message and is propagated for digital
modulation of subcarrier waveforms whose spectrum is confined
within the inner sideband. Sequence 75 of modulation symbols is
defined as the "D2" encoded message and is propagated for digital
modulation of subcarrier waveforms in both the upper outer and
lower outer sidebands, with or without diversity delay between the
upper outer and lower outer sideband information. In many
circumstances, it is preferable to implement D1, D2 separator 115
after FEC encoding in ECC encoding 107 rather than separating
source message 101 into two sequences prior to ECC encoding (not
shown), because the source bit information is spread over a greater
bandwidth (i.e. inner and outer sidebands) in the former
embodiment. A straightforward implementation of D1, D2 separator
115 is to propagate consecutive modulation symbols from symbol
interleaver 111 alternately to message sequences 65, 75; in other
words, first symbol to D1, second symbol to D2, third symbol to D1,
and so on.
[0075] FIG. 14 is a block diagram of each of inner sideband D1
signal generator 67, upper outer sideband D2 signal generator 71,
and lower outer sideband D2 signal generator 81. Delayed D1
codeword message 52 is propagated to inner sideband signal
generator 67. Delayed D2 codeword message 79 is propagated to upper
outer sideband signal generator 71, and D2 message 75 is propagated
to lower outer sideband signal generator 81, or vice versa when
diversity delay is implemented for the other outer sideband. Symbol
separator 151 in FIG. 14 for each of sideband signal generators 67,
71, and 81, divides incoming codeword messages 52, 79, and 75,
respectively, into groups of modulation symbols which are
subsequently used in the digital modulation of subcarrier waveforms
in subcarrier modulators 155. Symbol separator 151 may be
implemented as a serial-to-parallel converter where the serial word
size is the number of bits in each modulation symbol; for example,
4 bits for rate 3/4 16-ary PTCM encoding. The function of symbol
interleaver 111 and symbol separator 151 is such that each group of
one or a plurality of bits which constitute a modulation symbol is
preserved by the interleaving and serial-to-parallel conversion
processes. Subcarrier modulators 155 make use of the modulation
symbols in determining emitted (modulated) signals 157. In many
embodiments, each subcarrier modulator 155 makes use of two unique,
orthogonal waveforms; each waveform pair is then modulated by
generating emitted signal 157 according to a predetermined mapping
relationship between each possible combination of bits in each
modulation symbol and a corresponding (modulated) waveform which is
a combination of the waveform signals. After modulation in
subcarrier modulators 155 for each of sideband digital signal
generators 67, 71, and 81, resulting signals 157 are summed 161
together to determine composite inner sideband, upper outer
sideband, and lower outer sideband digital signals 69, 73, 83,
respectively. In certain embodiments, reference generator 163 emits
reference waveform 165 which is also summed 161 with modulated
subcarrier signals 159. For inner sideband digital signal generator
67, the spectrum of each modulated subcarrier waveform 157 emitted
from modulators 155 and reference signal 165, when implemented, is
substantially confined within the upper inner or lower inner
sideband (whichever inner sideband is not substantially occupied by
the SSB-LC or VSB-LC analog signal). Similarly, for upper outer
sideband digital signal generator 71, the spectrum of each emitted
modulated waveform 157 and reference signal 165, if present, is
substantially confined within the upper outer sideband. For lower
outer sideband digital signal generator 81, the spectrum of each
emitted modulated waveform 157 and reference signal 165, if
present, is substantially confined within the lower outer
sideband.
[0076] The subcarrier waveforms implemented in subcarrier
modulators 155 may be narrowband, for example, as in the known
method of OFDM modulation [reference: W. Y. Zou and Y. Wu, "COFDM:
an overview," IEEE Transactions on Broadcasting, Vol. 41, No. 1,
pp. 1-8, March 1995], or wideband within the inner, upper outer, or
lower outer sideband region. In narrowband methods such as OFDM,
each subcarrier waveform implemented in modulator 155 is
substantially confined to a discrete sinusoid-like emission with
relatively narrow bandwidth (e.g. 1 kHz), modulated with m-ary
phase-shift keying (m-ary PSK) or m-ary quadrature amplitude
modulation (m-ary QAM), and the spectrum of additive plurality 159
of the modulated subcarrier signals substantially spans the
sideband region, or in certain embodiments, the part of the
sideband which is made available for the digital signal in the
system design process. For example, when the analog signal is
generated as a VSB-LC signal, only part of the inner sideband is
available for the digital signal. According to the known OFDM
method of modulation, plurality of OFDM subcarrier modulators 155
and summing 161 may be accomplished with digital circuits which
implement the Inverse Fast Fourier Transform Algorithm (IFFT) for
signal generators 67, 71, and 81 one process. In embodiments of the
invention which utilize wideband subcarrier waveforms, the spectrum
of each (modulated or unmodulated) subcarrier waveform spans
substantially all of the bandwidth within the particular sideband
region (or designated part thereof). Both wideband and narrowband
methods of determining subcarrier waveforms require that the
modulated subcarrier waveforms be mutually almost perfectly
orthogonal so that, in the receiver system, the resulting signals
may be separated from one another in the additive plurality.
[0077] In certain embodiments when OFDM modulation is implemented,
it is preferable that symbols which are used to modulate the lower
outer sideband narrowband subcarrier waveforms with outermost
frequencies (i.e. those furtherest in frequency from center
frequency f.sub.c) are also used to modulate the innermost upper
outer sideband narrowband subcarrier waveforms (i.e. those closest
in frequency to f.sub.c), with or without diversity delay.
Similarly, symbols used to modulate the innermost lower outer
sideband narrowband subcarrier waveforms are also used to modulate
the outermost upper outer sideband narrowband subcarrier waveforms.
When narrowband subcarrier waveforms are implemented, as described
previously, exchanging the frequency-ordering in the mapping for
the upper outer and lower outer sidebands for the replicated
codeword information improves the system performance by maximizing
the average frequency separation between redundantly modulated
subcarrier waveforms.
[0078] In many embodiments, whether or not the spectrum of each
subcarrier waveform is narrowband (e.g. OFDM) or wideband, it is
preferable that a sufficient plurality of subcarrier modulators 155
is implemented in each of sideband digital signal generators 67,
71, and 81, so that the baud or symbol interval of each subcarrier
waveform is made reasonably long compared to the expected duration
of impulse interference and intersymbol interference. For example,
when the source bit information is encoded with rate 3/4 16-ary
pragmatic trellis-coded modulation over about 20 kHz of bandwidth
(i.e. 3 source bits/Hz/sec), and when the desired user bit
throughput is about 60 kbit/sec, the symbol interval in a system
with only one I&Q pair of digitally-modulated subcarrier
waveforms is about 50 microseconds, which is short compared to the
expected duration of transient interference in the AM-band. It is
preferable that the symbol interval be between about 1 millisecond
and 100 milliseconds in many embodiments, which necessitates a
plurality of subcarrier waveforms which as an aggregate convey the
source bit rate but each of which has a substantially longer symbol
interval than in a corresponding single-pair subcarrier system. For
a 5 millisecond symbol interval, about 50 subcarrier pairs (e.g.
I&Q modulation of each narrowband OFDM sinusoid or arbitrarily
paired wideband subcarrier waveforms within each sideband) are
implemented in certain embodiments for the inner sideband digital
signal, outer upper sideband digital signal, and redundant lower
outer sideband digital signal; in other words, about 150 subcarrier
pairs in total with about 100 subcarrier pairs conveying unique
codeword information.
[0079] The symbol interval for OFDM systems defines the frequency
separation between adjacent OFDM narrowband subcarriers, which is
the reciprocal of the symbol interval (e.g. 100 Hz frequency
separation between adjacent sinusoidal waveforms for a symbol
interval of 10 milliseconds). OFDM systems also commonly
incorporate an extension of the symbol interval by a further amount
of time known as the guard interval. The guard interval is
typically less than about 10 percent of the symbol interval. No
useful information is conveyed in the guard interval, which is
typically generated by appending a null (zero) signal or a partial
cyclic extension of the previous symbol, but its existence provides
a period of time in which deleterious intersymbol interference may
occur without disrupting the operation of the receiver; received
information in the guard interval is ignored. The disadvantage of
such a guard interval is that its existence reduces the effective
bit rate throughput by a corresponding amount. In receiver systems
which implement time-domain equalization, a guard interval may not
needed for OFDM system embodiments. The symbol interval for digital
signals in the inner and outer sidebands is substantially the same
and synchronized (coherent) to simplify receiver
implementation.
[0080] Because of the potential for first and/or second adjacent
interference, in many circumstances it is desirable to minimize the
amount of energy in the inner sideband digital signal at a .+-.10
kHz frequency offset from channel allocation center frequency
f.sub.c and the amount of energy in the outer sideband digital
signals at a frequency offset of .+-.20 kHz from channel f.sub.c.
The outer sideband circumstance is less problematic because of the
replicated codeword information in the upper outer and lower outer
sidebands. Most of the energy in a conventional AM-band analog
signal, or a SSB-LC or VSB-LC analog signal according to the
invention, is in the carrier signal component, which is a sinusoid
at the particular AM-band allocation center frequency. Since the
AM-band center frequencies are allocated at integer multiples of 10
kHz, one method to minimize the amount of digital signal energy at
f.sub.c.+-.10 kHz and f.sub.c.+-.20 kHz is to offset the effective
carrier frequency of the digital signals, labeled f.sub.cd, by a
small amount compared to the composite signal carrier frequency
(which is f.sub.c after final frequency-translation in the
transmitter system), for example, f.sub.cd=f.sub.c.+-.500 Hz. When
narrowband OFDM subcarriers are implemented, another method is to
determine the symbol frequency (e.g. 1/.DELTA.T, where .DELTA.T is
the symbol interval) so that the sum of the digital signal carrier
frequency and integer multiples of the symbol frequency, which are
the OFDM subcarrier frequencies, do not coincide with the adjacent
AM-band center frequencies; in other words, choose f.sub.cd and
.DELTA.T such that f.sub.cd.+-.n.multidot.(1/.DELTA.T-
).noteq.f.sub.c.+-.10 kHz and .noteq.f.sub.c.+-.20 kHz, where n is
an integer. An advantage of the system of the invention with SSB-LC
or VSB-LC embodiments of the analog signal is that the analog and
digital signals are, in certain embodiments, unrelated, so that it
is not necessary for the analog and digital signals to have the
same RF carrier frequency.
[0081] The purpose of reference waveform 165 in FIG. 14 is to
facilitate the implementation of baud clock recovery, carrier
frequency recovery, and equalization in the receiver system by
including a signal in the transmitted composite signal which is
known without ambiguity, unlike the modulated data-bearing signals.
Reference signal 165, when included in the composite sideband
digital signal, may be one or a plurality of narrowband sinusoidal
waveforms, typically known as pilot signals or "transparent tone in
band" (TTIB), or the spectrum may wideband within the particular
sideband. Reference signal 165 may be, but is not necessarily
orthogonal to composite sideband digital signal 159, which is the
additive plurality of signals 157 from subcarrier modulators 155.
Methods for generating a reference signal in a transmitter system
and recovering the reference signal in a receiver system are
described in co-pending U.S. patent applications 08/586,214 and
08/666,985, both to Kumar.
[0082] According to the transmitter system of the invention, an
analog signal representing substantially the same monophonic analog
audio information as a conventional analog AM signal with an audio
bandwidth of less than about 7 kHz is generated. The analog signal
may be received by conventional envelope detection analog AM
receivers with small distortion. In certain embodiments, the analog
signal is generated as a single-sideband large-carrier (SSB-LC)
signal, whose exemplary spectrum is shown in FIG. 7-8, or as a
vestigial-sideband large-carrier (VSB-LC), whose exemplary spectrum
is shown in FIG. 9. Intermediate frequency representation 63 of the
SSB-LC or VSB-LC analog signal is generated by SSB-LC or VSB-LC
signal generator 61 in the FIG. 11 transmitter system. FIG. 15 is a
block diagram of signal generator 61 for a SSB-LC embodiment of the
transmitter invention. Although the SSB-LC signal represents analog
audio information, in many embodiments it is preferable to
implement the signal processing steps using digital arithmetic
after analog-to-digital conversion.
[0083] In FIG. 15, digitized, lowpass filtered monophonic analog
audio signal 59 is highpass-filtered 201 to substantially attenuate
audio frequency components below about 100 Hz. Highpass-filtering
201 reduces the implementation complexity of Hilbert transform
filter 205, described subsequently. Highpass filter 201 may be
incorporated together with lowpass filter 55 prior to ADC 57 in
certain embodiments, in which case filter 55 is a bandpass filter.
Dual output numerically controlled oscillator (NCO) 215 generates
two sinusoidal signals 221 and 217 with the same frequency, which
is the intermediate frequency f.sub.IF, substantially the same
amplitude, and a substantially quadrature (i.e. 90.degree.)
phase-relationship. A NCO is a digital device which is typically
implemented with a phase accumulator register and read-only-memory
(ROM) lookup tables; for example, see the Q2334 dual direct digital
synthesizer technical data sheet from Qualcomm Incorporated, VLSI
Products, 6455 Lusk Boulevard, San Diego, Calif. NCOs may be
combined with digital-to-analog converters and lowpass filters to
implement direct digital synthesis (DDS) systems. For a NCO, the
rate of change in the value of a phase accumulator is the phase
increment. The phase increment directly determines the frequency of
the generated carrier signal. NCO carrier signal 217 is propagated
to amplifier/attenuator 229, which is a digital scalar multiplier
(shown as scale-factor .beta. in FIG. 15). Amplifier/attenuator 229
is used to adjust the amplitude of a replica of signal 217 without
affecting signal 217. The function of amplifier/attenuator 229 is
to establish the amount of carrier signal 217 which is summed 225
together with single-sideband suppressed-carrier (SSB-SC) signal
211, described subsequently; in other words, to determine the ratio
between carrier signal 231 power and sideband signal 211 power, so
that resulting single-sideband large-carrier (SSB-LC) signal 63 has
a sufficiently large carrier signal component. For proper operation
of conventional envelope detection AM-band analog receivers, the
average amount of carrier signal power in analog signal 63 as a
percentage of the total signal power, which includes both the
carrier signal and the analog sideband signal, is greater than
about eighty percent.
[0084] In FIG. 15, filtered monophonic audio signal 203 is
propagated to delay 213 and to Hilbert transform filter 205. The
amount of latency implemented in delay 213 corresponds to the group
delay of Hilbert transform filter 205 so that the latency in
resulting signals 207 and 214 is about the same. Delay 213 is
unrelated to diversity delays 48, 77. Phase-shifted signal 207
after Hilbert transform filter 205 is multiplied 209 with
quadrature IF carrier signal 221, generating signal 227. After
delay 213, latency-compensated signal 214 is multiplied 219 with
in-phase IF carrier signal 217, resulting in signal 223. Composite
signal 211, which is the sum of signals 227 and 223, corresponds to
the desired single-sideband signal, but with substantially no
carrier signal component, which is known as a single-sideband
suppressed-carrier (SSB-SC) representation. A SSB-SC representation
of the analog audio information is not compatible with conventional
analog AM receivers with envelope detectors. Signals 223 and 227
are summed 225 together with large-carrier signal component 231 to
determine single-sideband large-carrier (SSB-LC) signal 63, which
is the desired digital representation of the analog signal. In
certain embodiments, an advantage of selecting the sampling
frequency to be an integer multiple of the intermediate frequency
(e.g. a factor of 4) is that the implementation of NCO 215 and
multipliers 209 and 219 is significantly less complicated than for
an arbitrary intermediate frequency because the sine/cosine
functions for NCO 215 take on only a small number of unique values,
in which case NCO 215 and multipliers 209, 219 may be replaced with
look-up tables implemented with digital multiplexors (not
shown).
[0085] The function of Hilbert transform filter 205 is to cause a
phase-shift of about 90.degree. for substantially all frequencies
in digitized and filtered analog audio signal 203. Methods for
implementing Hilbert transform filters using finite impulse
response (FIR) digital filters are known [reference: S. D. Stearns
and R. A. David. Signal Processing Algorithms in Fortran and C.
Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: PTR Prentice Hall, Inc., 1993, pp.
297-302]; see also U.S. Pat. No. 4,835,791 to Daoud. A Hilbert
transform filter implemented with a N "tap" or "weight" FIR digital
filter, where N is odd, has a group delay of (N-1)/2 taps, which is
also the latency compensation in delay 213. The number of taps in
the implementation of Hilbert transform filter 205 depends upon the
lowest audio frequency which is to be passed through filter 205.
The extent of Hilbert transform filter 205 in time, which is the
product of the number of taps and the reciprocal of the sampling
frequency, is larger than the corresponding period of the lowest
frequency which Hilbert transform filter 205 is to pass. For
example, to preserve low frequency analog audio information at
about 100 Hz without introducing significant amounts of amplitude
and/or phase distortion as a result of Hilbert transform filter
205, other than the desired phase shifting, about 800 taps are
implemented for Hilbert transform filter 205 at a sampling
frequency of 80 kHz (i.e. a real-valued IF frequency of 20 kHz).
Such filtering involves about 32 million multiply-accumulate (MAC)
operations per second since half of the Hilbert transform filter
taps have zero weight. Exemplary tap weights are included in the
microfiche appendix. The number of taps in Hilbert transform filter
205 may be reduced by first determining the Hilbert transform of
analog audio signal 51 using a sampling frequency closer to the
twice the Nyquist frequency for the analog information than the IF
frequency (e.g. a sampling frequency of 20 kHz vs. 80 kHz for 10
kHz audio), followed by interpolation of the resulting signal to
the higher sampling frequency of the IF representation (e.g. 80
kHz). Such a multi-rate implementation (not shown) involves a
design tradeoff between the complexity of the Hilbert transform
filter and the complexity of the required interpolator; see also
U.S. Pat. No. 4,974,236 to Gurcan, et. al. SSB-LC generator 61 may
be configured to preserve substantially either the lower or upper
sideband of the resulting signal by altering summer 225. The
configuration shown in FIG. 15 preserves the lower sideband analog
signal as shown in IF spectrum representation 100 in FIG. 11.
[0086] FIG. 16 is a block diagram which shows analog signal
generator 61 for a vestigial-sideband large-carrier (VSB-LC)
representation of the monophonic analog audio information.
Digitized lowpass-filtered audio signal 59 is multiplied 233 by
sinusoidal carrier signal 217, which is generated by NCO 239. The
frequency of carrier signal 217 is the intermediate frequency (IF)
value, for example 20 kHz. Carrier signal 217 is
amplified/attenuated in digital scalar multiplier 229, resulting in
signal 231, which is used to establish the amount of carrier signal
power in resulting VSB-LC signal 63 after summation 225. The use of
scalar multiplier 229 to adjust carrier signal power relative to
analog sideband power was described previously for the SSB-LC
embodiment and is common to both the SSB-LC and VSB-LC embodiments.
VSB filter 237 is preferably a digital finite impulse response
(FIR) filter which implements the vestigial shaping function. VSB
filter 237 acts on IF representation 235 of the analog signal. IF
representation 235 is known as double-sideband suppressed-carrier
(DSB-SC) and includes two substantially symmetric (mirror image)
sidebands about a suppressed carrier frequency signal, which is the
intermediate frequency. If a large carrier signal component were
present in representation 235, it would be equivalent to the
conventional analog AM signal, frequency-translated to the IF
frequency. VSB filter 237 significantly attenuates either the upper
or lower sideband in IF representation 235 while preserving the
phase and amplitude relationships between the sidebands in
resulting VSB-SC signal 238 so that conventional synchronous
demodulation may be implemented in the receiver system (or
conventional envelope detection methods after summation 225 with
large carrier signal component 231).
[0087] FIG. 17 is a block diagram of the transmitter system when
the analog signal is generated according to the FIG. 10 spectrum,
where the analog signal is neither SSB-LC nor VSB-LC. In FIG. 17,
the steps and processes for generating the outer sideband digital
signals and for up-converting the composite IF signal to the
desired RF signal are as in the FIG. 11 transmitter system.
However, the FIG. 11 and FIG. 17 transmitter system embodiments
differ in the generation of the inner sideband digital signal and
analog signal. In FIG. 17, lowpass filtered analog audio signal 59
is combined with baseband digital signal 58 in nonlinear compatible
quadrature amplitude modulation (NC-QAM) modulator 60. Baseband
digital signal 58 is generated by baseband D1 signal generator 56.
Baseband D1 signal generator 56 digitally modulates subcarrier
waveforms using D1 codeword message 65 or, in certain embodiments
when diversity delays 48, 77 are implemented, delayed D1 codeword
message 52. The implementation of baseband signal generator 56 is
similar to that of inner sideband signal generator 67, except that
the spectrum of each of the subcarrier waveforms for baseband
signal generator 56 is confined substantially between 0 kHz and
about 8 kHz (i.e. a baseband representation of an inner
sideband).
[0088] NC-QAM modulator 60 may be implemented by modifying a
conventional C-QUAM.TM. analog AM-band stereo signal generator,
when such generator is implemented at the intermediate frequency. A
conventional C-QUAM.TM. analog AM-band stereo signal generator
determines an analog stereo signal according to the C-QUAM.TM.
representation from left (L) and right (R) analog audio signal
inputs. The C-QUAM.TM. signal generator is preferably implemented
with digital circuits for improved precision and repeatability. For
NC-QAM modulator 60, instead of propagating a left audio signal to
the L input of a C-QUAM.TM. signal generator, the arithmetic sum of
lowpass-filtered monophonic audio signal 59 and digital baseband
signal 58 (i.e. A.+-.D1) is propagated to the L input. Instead of
propagating a right audio signal to the R input of a C-QUAM.TM.
signal generator, the arithmetic difference between
lowpass-filtered monophonic audio signal 59 and digital baseband
signal 58 (i.e. A-D1) is propagated to the R input. The L and R
inputs may be reversed. The signal resulting from conventional
C-QUAM.TM. modulation may be used as NC-QAM modulated signal 62,
which is the combined analog and digital baseband inner sideband
signal.
[0089] NC-QAM modulated signal 62 is bandpass filtered 72, and
resulting filtered signal 74 is summed 85 together with outer
sideband digital signals 73, 83 to determine composite IF signal
87. Bandpass filter 72 substantially attenuates frequency
components in NC-QAM modulated signal 62 at frequency offsets
greater than about .+-.10 kHz from the intermediate frequency
f.sub.IF to mitigate interference from NC-QAM modulated signal 62
to the outer sideband digital signals. Bandpass filter 72 is
preferably a linear-phase finite-impulse-response (FIR) filter, so
that the relationship between the analog and baseband digital
signal components in NC-QAM signal 62 is not significantly
distorted by filter 72.
[0090] NC-QAM is a nonlinear method of modulation. As a result, the
spectrum occupied by NC-QAM modulated signal 62 is greater than the
two-sided bandwidth which would result using a linear method of
modulation, for example, conventional quadrature amplitude
modulation with analog audio signal 59 and digital baseband signal
58. As a result of the spectrum widening in NC-QAM modulated signal
62, the spectrum of baseband digital signal 58 is constrained to be
less than about 8 kHz by the design of the subcarrier waveforms in
baseband digital signal generator 56, or the design of the
subcarrier waveforms in the outer sidebands is such that the amount
of spectrum overlap is lessened, for example, by increasing the
minimum frequency offset for the innermost outer sideband
subcarrier waveforms (i.e. closer to f.sub.c). In general, wideband
outer sideband subcarrier waveforms are less deleteriously affected
by spectrum overlap with NC-QAM modulated signal 62 than narrowband
outer sideband subcarrier waveforms. When the subcarrier waveforms
are narrowband, for example, OFDM subcarrier waveforms, exchanging
the frequency-ordering in the mapping for the redundantly modulated
outer sidebands as described previously also lessens the
deleterious effect of spectrum overlap between the nonlinear inner
sideband and outer sideband signals.
[0091] FIG. 18-19 is a block diagram of the receiver system of the
invention for the FIG. 11 transmitter system embodiment. In FIG.
18, a composite RF signal, which includes the analog and digital
signals, is detected with a conventional AM-band antenna system. In
many embodiments, the received RF signal is amplified and
frequency-translated from the desired RF frequency range, which
varies according to the particular AM-band channel allocation to a
fixed intermediate frequency range (e.g. f.sub.IF.+-.20 kHz), for
further processing. Low noise amplification/frequency translation
is accomplished in RF downconverter 301. RF downconverter 301
typically includes a low-noise amplifier (LNA), a balanced mixer
(multiplier), a local oscillator (LO) at frequency
f.sub.c.+-.f.sub.IF for tuning, and a bandpass filter to reject the
mixer image and constrain the noise integration bandwidth. A
commonly implemented intermediate frequency, f.sub.IF, for
conventional AM-band receivers is 455 kHz. The two-sided bandwidth
of frequency-translated signal 305, which is the received composite
IF signal, is about 40 kHz (i.e. .+-.20 kHz) in order to pass both
the digital and analog signals in the composite signal. Monophonic
analog audio information 302 may be recovered from composite IF
signal 305 in conventional analog AM demodulator 307. A
conventional AM demodulator includes an envelope detector and
lowpass filter and typically recovers an audio signal with a
bandwidth between about 5 kHz and 7 kHz. According to the SSB-LC or
VSB-LC embodiments of the invention, recovery of the analog signal
sideband (and consequently monophonic audio signal 302) is not
required to recover the supplemental digital signals. However, in
certain embodiments described subsequently, the large-carrier
signal component of the SSB-LC or VSB-LC analog signal may be
tracked in the digital signal receiver system in order to
accomplish carrier frequency synchronization between the digital
signal transmitter and receiver systems. When an SSB-LC or VSB-LC
analog signal is transmitted, the performance of analog AM
demodulator 307 may be improved by including optional bandpass
filter 304 in the analog receiver prior to AM demodulator 307.
Optional bandpass filter 304 has a bandwidth of about 10 kHz, and
substantially passes the analog signal in the inner analog sideband
and substantially attenuates the effect of the digital sideband
signals.
[0092] In certain embodiments of the receiver system, the
intermediate frequency is zero, which is known as "direct
conversion". In a direct conversion receiver, the received RF
signal is separately multiplied by both in-phase and quadrature
sinusoidal carrier signals at AM-band allocation center frequency
f.sub.c. The sinusoidal carriers may be generated with a dual
output direct digital synthesizer (DDS), described previously for
the transmitter system, and the multiplication accomplished with
analog methods (e.g. balanced mixers or switches) or digital
methods (multipliers). After multiplication, resulting in-phase and
quadrature mixed (multiplied) signals are digitized with in-phase
(I) and quadrature (Q) analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) with
matched characteristics and low offset errors. Direct conversion is
applicable to AM-band reception because of the relatively small
carrier frequencies (i.e. less than about 2 MHz). The advantage of
direct conversion is that it eliminates intermediate frequency
translation steps and may result in a less complicated
implementation. A direct conversion embodiment of the invention
utilizes ADCs with wide dynamic range, greater than about 10 bits,
and preferably closer to 12-14 bits, because of the large range in
received signal amplitude and the close frequency proximity between
large-power (analog AM) and small-power (digital) signals.
[0093] After RF down-conversion 301 to first composite IF signal
representation 305, composite IF signal 305 may be directly
digitized with a single ADC, or directly down-converted and
digitized with multiple ADCs, or the composite IF signal may be
further filtered and its average amplitude controlled with a radio
signal strength indicator (RSSI) and automatic gain control (AGC)
prior to IF down/direct converter 309. In the latter embodiments,
after filtering and AGC, the signal may be digitized using dual
ADCs 311 (i.e. I and Q) after direct (from IF) downconversion, or
the signal may be frequency translated to a second IF frequency
(e.g. 20 kHz) and then digitized with single ADC 311. The objective
of these steps is to generate a bandpass filtered and approximately
gain-controlled representation of the received signal at a final
intermediate frequency with very low value (e.g. 20 kHz), or which
is zero (i.e. direct conversion). The representation of received
composite signal 312 after final IF frequency translation is
real-valued when the IF frequency is non-zero and complex-valued
(i.e. real and imaginary parts) when the IF frequency is zero.
Since reception of the SSB-LC or VSB-LC analog signal is not
necessary in order to receive the digital signal, IF
direct/downconverter 309 may include further bandpass/bandreject
filtering to substantially attenuate the inner sideband which is
substantially occupied by the analog signal. Significant
attenuation of the analog signal may reduce the number of bits
needed in subsequent analog-to-digital converter 311, from 12 bits
to 10 bits, for example.
[0094] Digitized received signal 312 is propagated to baud (symbol)
clock recovery 313. Baud clock recovery 313 compensates for timing
errors in the baud (symbol) interval for the digital signals. Baud
clock recovery 313 is needed because upon initial operation the
transmitter and receiver systems are not synchronized. In certain
embodiments, baud clock recovery 313 adjusts the sampling frequency
for ADC(s) 311 so that the transmitter and receiver symbol
frequencies are coherent (phase-locked). Digitized received signal
312 is often also used in carrier recovery 315 in order to
accomplish carrier frequency synchronization between the
transmitter and receiver systems. The function of baud clock
recovery 313 and carrier frequency recovery 315 is common to any
coherent digital communication systems. The update rate for carrier
recovery 315 is faster than that for baud clock recovery 313
because changes in baud interval occur very slowly. In general,
implementing carrier frequency tracking for AM-band signals is less
complicated than for FM-band signals because of the low RF carrier
frequencies in the AM-band. For example, frequency shift due to the
Doppler effect in the AM-band is very small, much less than 1 Hz.
Some methods for accomplishing baud and carrier frequency
synchronization are described in co-pending applications 08/666,985
and 08/586,214 to Kumar.
[0095] In certain embodiments of the receiver invention, the
transmitted reference signal component in the inner sideband
digital signal may be tracked and used for baud and/or carrier
frequency recovery. The reference signal component in the outer
sideband digital signals, if present, is used for signal
equalization in certain embodiments. In certain preferable receiver
system embodiments, the large-carrier signal component of the
received SSB-LC or VSB-LC analog signal is used in carrier recovery
315, for example, with a narrowband phase-locked loop (PLL)
preceded by an amplitude-limiter. The loop bandwidth is less than
about 1 kHz. Use of the large-carrier signal component is
advantageous because of the large amount of power in the carrier
signal, which makes its determination in the receiver robust
against noise. When the digital signal transmitter system
implements a predetermined frequency offset from the analog
large-carrier frequency for the digital signal carrier frequency,
in other words, when f.sub.cd.noteq.f.sub.c, the predetermined
frequency offset is also applied to the determined frequency
estimate of the large-carrier signal component in the received
analog signal in order to recover the digital signal carrier
frequency. The local oscillator(s) used in the generation of the
analog signal and digital signals in the transmitter system must be
coherent (i.e. resulting signals 63 and signals 69, 83, 73 in FIG.
11 are coherent) in order to use the analog signal carrier in order
to recover the digital signal carrier in the receiver system.
[0096] The SSB-LC or VSB-LC analog signal is not useful in baud
clock recovery 313 for the digital signals. In certain embodiments
of the system invention, baud clock synchronization 313 in the
receiver system is facilitated by including a "pilot" tone as
reference signal 165 in composite inner sideband digital signal 69
in the FIG. 11 transmitter system. The pilot tone frequency is
determined so that the (common) symbol frequency of the inner and
outer sideband digital signals is a rational (i.e. p/q, where p and
q are integers) or, preferably an integer multiple of the pilot
tone frequency; for example, a symbol frequency of 100 Hz (i.e. 10
ms) and a pilot tone of 25 Hz (i.e. 100 Hz/4=25 Hz). In the
corresponding receiver system, a narrowband phase-locked loop (PLL)
is used to recover the pilot tone, and the symbol frequency is
generated by coherent frequency multiplication of the recovered
tone. The effect of the pilot tone on the digital signal recovered
in the receiver system may be mitigated by filtering (highpass or
bandpass) or by averaging and subtracting, for example.
[0097] Radio propagation in the AM-band of frequencies differs from
radio propagation at much higher frequencies, for example, the VHF
and UHF bands, because of the very long wavelength (e.g. 300 meters
at 1000 kHz) and certain atmospheric and ground conductivity
effects. In particular, conventional close-in multipath propagation
and Doppler frequency shift do not significantly affect AM-band
signals to the same degree as higher frequency RF signals, for
example, FM-band signals. However, received AM-band signals are
subject to dispersion due to the effect of nearby large metallic
structures and re-radiation of signals from power lines [reference:
C. W. Trueman and S. J. Kubina, "Initial assessment of re-radiation
from power lines," IEEE Transactions on Broadcasting, Vol. 31, No.
3, pp. 51-65, September 1985 and N. M. Maslin in HF Communications:
A Systems Approach. New York: Plenum Press, 1987, pp. 94-98].
AM-band signals are also subject to a kind of multipath
interference known as "sky wave" propagation due to signal
reflections from the ionosphere, particularly at night. Sky wave
propagation can be very deleterious because of the large delay
spreads, which may be several milliseconds. Sky wave propagation is
a further reason (in addition to impulse interference) a long
symbol (baud) interval for the subcarrier waveforms in the digital
signals is desirable.
[0098] The various causes of signal dispersion result in varying
received signal amplitude and group delay across the bandwidth of
the composite analog and digital signals, which further vary as a
function of time when the receiver is in motion. This is known as a
time-varying frequency-selective RF channel. The magnitude of the
deleterious effects of the RF channel on the source bit estimate
determined in the receiver system depends upon the modulation and
FEC methods implemented in the corresponding transmitter system.
When OFDM subcarrier waveforms are implemented in each sideband,
and when the subcarriers are modulated as I&Q pairs with m-ary
phase-shift keying (PSK), for example, rate 3/4 16-ary pragmatic
trellis-coded modulation (PTCM), then variations in amplitude as a
function of frequency are significant only when the amplitude
becomes very small, close to the system noise floor. However, m-ary
PSK is sensitive to differences in the group delay as a function of
frequency. Multiple pilot tones, or preferably, differential
signaling may be implemented to reduce this sensitivity. Methods
for implementing differential m-ary PTCM are known; see U.S. Pat.
No. 5,428,631 to Zehavi and U.S. Pat. No. 5,233,630 to Wolf, the
disclosures of which are incorporated hereby by reference. m-ary
quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) is more efficient than
corresponding m-ary PSK in additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN),
but m-ary QAM is sensitive to both phase and amplitude variations
across the digital signal spectrum. Wideband (within the sideband)
subcarrier waveforms are, in general, more robust than narrowband
(e.g. OFDM) subcarriers against sky wave propagation when the delay
spread exceeds the guard interval.
[0099] Another method to reduce the effects of dispersion is to
equalize 317 the received signal. Equalization may be implemented
in the time-domain (e.g. prior to FFT demodulation for OFDM) and/or
in the frequency-domain (e.g. after FFT demodulation for OFDM).
Many methods of implementing equalizer 317 are known; for example,
minimum mean square estimation (MMSE), least mean square (LMS), and
recursive least square (RLS) update algorithms for finite impulse
response (FIR) equalization filters. When equalization is
implemented in the receiver system, it is preferable that reference
signal 165 is included in the composite digital signal in the
transmitter system to facilitate the update algorithm for equalizer
317. A transmitted reference signal facilitates equalization
because it provides a predetermined waveform whose characteristics
in the absence of distortion are known to the receiver system. The
received reference waveform may be separated from the received
composite signal in the receiver system and compared to the
predetermined reference waveform in order to determine how to
change (adapt) the equalizer coefficients (also known as weights or
taps or samples) in order to minimize the dispersion. In most
circumstances, equalization is not able to correct for dispersive
effects completely, particularly when the receiver is in motion.
Furthermore, the process of equalization itself may generate
additional noise in the determined signal estimate. In the
transmitter system, separate reference waveforms may be transmitted
in each of the sideband regions occupied by digital signals, for
example, one of the upper inner or lower inner sidebands, and the
upper outer and lower outer sidebands. For frequency-domain
equalization with OFDM, typically one complex (I&Q,
phase/amplitude) equalization weight is implemented for each
narrowband I&Q subcarrier pair. For time-domain equalization,
one equalizer with a plurality of weights is preferably
implemented, and the reference signals are considered together as
one reference signal across the inner and outer sidebands. For
example, when the sampling frequency is 80 kHz, the time extent of
a 50 tap FIR equalizer is about 0.625 milliseconds, which requires
about 4 million multiply/accumulate operations/sec (MACs).
[0100] After equalization 317, which may not be implemented in all
receiver system embodiments, received and synchronized signal
estimate 321 is propagated for demodulation in upper outer sideband
demodulator 323, inner sideband demodulator 325, and lower outer
sideband demodulator 327. Demodulators 323, 325, and 327 in the
FIG. 18 receiver system correspond to signal generators 71, 67, and
81, respectively, in the FIG. 11 transmitter system. Demodulators
323, 325, and 327 determine signals 329, 332, and 333,
respectively, which are modulation symbol estimates for the
subcarrier waveforms in the respective sideband. For example, when
rate 3/4 16-ary PTCM and OFDM subcarriers are implemented in the
transmitter system, demodulators 323, 325, and 327 implement OFDM
demodulation and phase estimation for each narrowband OFDM
subcarrier (pair). The number of bits in the representation of each
estimated modulation symbol is less than about ten, preferably
closer to eight bits (e.g. four bits for the I estimate and four
bits for the Q estimate, for each subcarrier pair) to minimize the
amount of digital memory for subsequent deinterleaving and
diversity delay, when implemented.
[0101] The function of demodulators 323, 325, and 327 is to
correlate received signal 321 with each of the subcarrier waveforms
in the respective digital signal sideband to first determine scalar
quantities, and eventually modulation symbol estimates, for each
subcarrier demodulator. A block diagram of each of demodulators
323, 325, and 327 is shown in FIG. 19. In certain embodiments, the
effect of transmitted reference signal 165 on received composite
signal 321 is substantially attenuated by reference signal
separator 401. Methods of separating and recovering reference
signals in a receiver system are described in co-pending
application 08/586,214 to Kumar. After reference signal removal or
attenuation, when necessary, composite signal 403 is propagated to
plurality of subcarrier demodulators 405. Subcarrier demodulators
405 determine the cross-correlation at the nominal sampling point,
which is a scalar value, between composite signal 403 and each of
the subcarrier waveforms for the particular sideband.
Cross-correlation at the sampling point presumes that baud
synchronization in baud clock recovery 313 has been accomplished.
In each subcarrier demodulator, the determined scalar values
resulting from the crosscorrelation of the received signal with the
subcarrier waveforms are mapped to modulation symbol estimates.
When m-ary PSK is implemented for subcarrier pairs in the
transmitter system, correlation sums determined for each subcarrier
pair in the receiver system, arbitrarily labeled I and Q, are
mapped to an estimate of the transmitted phase angle for the
subcarrier pair for that symbol interval, for example, as given by
arctan(Q/I). When OFDM modulation and corresponding OFDM
demodulation is implemented, plurality of subcarrier demodulators
405 are accomplished as one process for demodulators 323, 325, 327,
by using a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) algorithm. Modulation
symbol estimates 407 are re-arranged as a serial sequence of symbol
estimates in symbol combiner 409. Thus, symbol combiner 409 in the
receiver system reverses the serial-to-parallel conversion
accomplished by corresponding symbol separator 151 in the
transmitter system.
[0102] There is a correspondence between the symbols in transmitted
delayed D1 source message 52 and estimated inner sideband
modulation symbols 332. Similarly, there is a correspondence
between symbols in the transmitted delayed D2 source message 79 and
estimated upper outer sideband modulation symbols 329, and between
D2 message 75 and estimated lower outer sideband modulation symbols
333. However, the representation of the transmitter and receiver
estimated modulation symbols may not include the same number of
bits because of the presence of "soft-decision" information at the
receiver. When diversity delays 48, 77 are implemented as shown in
the FIG. 11 transmitter system, corresponding delay 353 is
implemented in the FIG. 18 receiver system for lower outer sideband
demodulator 327. The function of delay 353 is to cause latency in
the received modulation symbol estimate 333 (for which codeword
information was not delayed in the transmitter system) so that
resulting delayed message estimate 338 corresponds to the same
codeword information at the same time as estimate 329 for proper
operation of codeword diversity selector 363, described
subsequently. When transmitter delay 77 is instead implemented for
lower sideband signal generator 81 (not shown), the corresponding
receiver delay is implemented after upper outer sideband
demodulator 323. The amount of digital memory used to implement
delay 353 in the receiver system is not necessarily the same as for
delays 48, 77 in the transmitter system because of the (possible)
difference in the representation of the modulation symbols in the
transmitter system and the modulation symbol estimates in the
receiver system. However, delays 353, 48 and 77 correspond to the
same amount of time or symbols.
[0103] In FIG. 18, upper outer sideband estimated modulation
symbols 329 and inner sideband estimated modulation symbols 332 are
propagated to first D1, D2 combiner 335. Separately, inner sideband
estimated modulation symbols 332 and delayed lower outer sideband
estimated modulation symbols 138 are propagated to second D1, D2
combiner 337. D1, D2 combiners 335, 337 in the FIG. 18 receiver
system reverse the effect of D1, D2 separator 115 in FIG. 12. D1,
D2 combiners 335, 337 combine inner and outer sideband modulation
symbol estimates to determine estimates 339, 341, respectively, of
each transmitted interleaved codeword 113, which is a sequence of
modulation symbols. For example, when separator 115 in the
transmitter system propagates consecutive codeword symbols 113 to
D1 message 65 and D2 message 75 alternately, D1, D2 combiners 335,
337 generate combined messages 339, 341, respectively, by forming
sequences of estimated modulation symbols from the inner and outer
sideband modulation symbol estimates alternately. Combined
modulation symbol estimates 339, 341 correspond to the same
transmitted codeword information 113 at the same time even when
diversity delays 48, 77 are implemented in the transmitter system
because of diversity delay compensation 353 in the receiver system.
After combining, redundant estimates 339, 341 are separately
deinterleaved in symbol deinterleavers 347, 351, respectively.
Deinterleavers 347, 351 in the FIG. 18 receiver system are
substantially the same and each reverses the effect of
corresponding interleaver 111 in the transmitter system.
Deinterleaving may be implemented prior to or subsequent to bit
estimation. In many embodiments, it is preferable to implement
deinterleavers 347, 351 prior to bit estimating in order to reduce
the amount of digital memory, especially for higher order
modulations, for example, 16-ary PSK. In FIG. 18, deinterleavers
347, 351 operate on modulation symbol estimates, which are
typically correlation sums (e.g. determined I and Q scalar value
pairs) or equivalent amplitude and/or phase estimates, instead of
bit estimates. After deinterleaving 347, 351, redundant estimated
modulation symbol codewords 343, 345 are propagated to bit
estimators 359, 355, respectively. Bit estimators 359, 355
determine source bit estimates 361, 357, respectively, from the
received modulation symbol estimates, which are, or may be mapped
directly to codeword estimates. Determined bit estimates 361, 357
represent substantially the same transmitted codeword (and source
bit) information in the absence of errors because of the
replication of part of the codeword information in both the lower
outer and upper outer sideband digital signals, with inner sideband
digital signal codeword information common to both determined
estimates. Bit estimators 359, 355 implement-forward error
correction (FEC) decoding methods in the receiver system which
correspond to the FEC encoding methods implemented in ECC encoder
107 in the transmitter system, for example, pragmatic trellis coded
modulation (PTCM) in the transmitter system and PTCM decoding in
the receiver system as accomplished with a Qualcomm Q1875 decoder
integrated circuit, referenced previously.
[0104] Bit estimates from estimators 359, 355, and in certain
embodiments, side-information determined as the result of the bit
estimating, is used in codeword diversity selector 363 to determine
which of the determined estimates 361, 357 is less likely to be
erroneous for each transmitted codeword. In certain embodiments of
the receiver system, for each transmitted codeword (i.e. on a
codeword-by-codeword basis), codeword diversity selector 363
determines whether to i) propagate either the source bit
information for determined estimate 361 or the source bit
information for determined estimate 357 as source bit information
estimate 365, or whether to ii) combine modulation symbol
(codeword) information from estimates 343, 355, and re-estimate (by
re-decoding) the source bits from the combined modulation symbol
information. In certain embodiments, re-estimation of the combined
modulation symbol information is not implemented to simplify
receiver implementation; in other words, in these embodiments,
codeword diversity selector 363 always selects between one of the
two determined estimates for each redundantly transmitted codeword.
After codeword diversity selector 363, determined source bit
estimate 365 is de-scrambled 367 to determine final source bit
estimate 369, which in the absence of bit errors, is substantially
the same as source message 101. Unscrambling in descrambler 367
reverses the effect of corresponding scrambler 103 in the
transmitter system. When the source bit information represents
further source-encoded information, for example, compressed digital
audio, source message 369 is further decoded (not shown) according
to the source encoding method.
[0105] Methods for implementing bit estimators 359, 355 and
codeword diversity selector 363 are described in co-pending
application 08/666,985 to Kumar. The '985 application describes a
digital broadcasting system preferably in the VHF/FM-band of
frequencies. However, the methods described in the '985 application
for implementing codeword diversity selection are applicable to
this AM-band invention because both systems involve source bit
estimation from at least two determined codeword estimates with
replicated source bit information for each transmitted codeword,
with or without diversity delay between the transmitted replicas.
One method described in the '985 application for implementing a
codeword diversity selector is the use of the accumulated Viterbi
decoding algorithm branch metrics, determined at the (known)
terminal state for each transmitted codeword. The metrics are
compared in order to determine whether to select between decoded
codewords or combine codeword information and re-decode. When
differential modulation methods are implemented, for example,
differential m-ary PTCM, the phase-ambiguity is resolved prior to
comparison of accumulated branch metrics for codeword diversity
selection. Methods for resolving phase ambiguities in differential
m-ary PTCM are known; see U.S. Pat. No. 5,428,631 to Zehavi and
U.S. Pat. No. 5,233,630 to Wolf the disclosures of which are
incorporated herein by reference.
[0106] In certain embodiments of the receiver system when PTCM
demodulation is implemented, trellis decoding in the receiver
system for those bits which are not convolutional-encoded in the
transmitter system (i.e. the half-plane bit for rate 2/3 8-ary PTCM
or the two quarter-plane bits for rate 3/4 16-ary PTCM, for each
modulation symbol) is not performed until after codeword diversity
selector 363. The convolutional-encoded bits are first decoded and
Viterbi metric information is used in the implementation of
diversity selector 363 as described above and in the '985
application. After the determination whether to select between or,
in certain embodiments, to combine codeword information and
re-decode is made in diversity selector 363, the corresponding
non-convolutional-encoded trellis bits are decoded.
[0107] FIG. 20 is a block diagram of the receiver system for the
FIG. 17 transmitter system, where the analog signal is neither
SSB-LC nor VSB-LC. In FIG. 17, a baseband digital signal is
combined with the monophonic audio signal using NC-QAM modulation
to determine combined analog and digital signals in the inner
sidebands. In FIG. 20, steps and processes related to the
RF-downconversion, synchronization, equalization, demodulation and
determination of the outer sideband digital signals are as in the
FIG. 18 receiver system. Once codeword estimates are determined,
processes of deinterleaving, bit estimation, codeword diversity
selection, and descrambling are also as in FIG. 18. The difference
between the FIG. 18 and FIG. 20 receiver system embodiments is that
inner sideband demodulator 325 in FIG. 18 is replaced with NC-QAM
demodulator 318 and baseband digital signal demodulator 322 in FIG.
20. Baseband digital signal demodulator 322 corresponds to baseband
digital signal generator 56 in the FIG. 17 transmitter system and
is implemented similar to inner sideband demodulator 325 (see FIG.
19) except that the subcarrier waveforms are substantially confined
with the baseband spectrum.
[0108] In order to recover baseband digital signal estimate 320 for
the transmitted D1 message, (equalized) received composite signal
321 is demodulated in NC-QAM demodulator 318, which is preferably
implemented at the final IF frequency. NC-QAM demodulator 318
corresponds to NC-QAM modulator 60 in the transmitter system.
NC-QAM demodulator 318 may be implemented by modifying a
conventional C-QUAM.TM., analog AM-band stereo demodulator when
corresponding NC-QAM modulator 60 is implemented with a
corresponding C-QUAM.TM. modulator, as described previously.
Methods of implementing C-QUAM.TM. demodulation for analog stereo
in the AM-band are known; see M. Temerinac, et. al., ibid., FIG. 1,
and U.S. Pat. No. 5,014,316 to Marrah, et. al. Because steps
preceding and subsequent to NC-QAM demodulator 318, which may be a
modified C-QUAM.TM. demodulator, are preferably implemented with
digital circuits, digital embodiments of NC-QUAM demodulator 318
are also preferred. In certain embodiments, signal 321 is bandpass
filtered (not shown), preferably with a linear phase filter, to
substantially attenuate frequency components at offsets greater
than about .+-.10 kHz from f.sub.IF prior to demodulation 318. The
C-QUAM.TM. demodulator generates two signals, a left (L) audio
signal estimate and a right (R) audio signal estimate. However, the
generated signals are not audio signals when the C-QUAM.TM.
demodulator is driven by composite signal 321, which is not a
conventional analog stereo AM-band signal. The arithmetic sum of
the determined L and R signal estimates (L+R) is recovered
monophonic audio signal 302. The arithmetic difference of the L and
R signal estimates (L-R) is estimated D1 baseband digital signal
320. In many implementations, the L-R and L+R signals are
determined within the C-QUAM.TM. demodulator and may be propagated
directly to baseband demodulator 322 (digital signal) or as
recovered monophonic audio signal 302 (analog signal),
respectively, bypassing stereo matrix decoding.
[0109] When NC-QAM modulation is implemented, the carrier frequency
component of the combined analog and baseband digital signals in
the inner sidebands is not used for determination of the carrier
frequency of the outer sideband digital signals in the receiver
system, because of the presence of phase-modulation on the combined
signal carrier frequency, which is caused by the NC-QAM
modulation.
[0110] Once given the above disclosure, therefore, various other
modifications, features or improvements will become apparent to the
skilled artisan. Such other features, modifications, and
improvements are thus considered a part of this invention, the
scope of which is to be determined by the following claims:
* * * * *