Novel physical layer header structure for decoding and synchronization
AssigneeViaSat, Inc.
InventorsDonald W. Becker, Matthew D. Nimon, William H. Thesling
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Abstract
Systems, devices, processors, and methods are described which may be used for the reception of a wireless broadband signal at a user terminal from a gateway via a satellite. A wireless signal may include a series of physical layer frames, each frame including a physical layer header and payload. The received signal is digitized and processed using various novel physical layer headers and related techniques to synchronize the physical layer frames and recover data from physical layer headers for purposes of demodulation and decoding.
Claims24
A terminal to process a physical layer header for a received wireless signal, the terminal comprising:
- a receiver module configured to receive the wireless signal transmitted via a satellite;
- an A/D module, communicatively coupled with the receiver module, and configured to process the received wireless signal to generate a digitized stream of symbols comprising a physical layer signal;
- and
- a header processing module, communicatively coupled with the A/D module, and configured to:
- search the received wireless signal for a code block of a first physical layer header corresponding to a start of frame location;
- and
- process the code block to identify the start of frame location, wherein the code block further comprises signaling information attributable to the payload of the frame.
A method of processing a wireless signal, the method comprising:
- processing the wireless signal to generate a digitized stream of symbols comprising a physical layer signal representative of the wireless signal;
- searching the digitized stream of symbols for a code block of a physical layer header corresponding to a start of frame location;
- and
- processing a portion of the digitized stream comprising the code block to identify the start of frame location, wherein the code block further comprises signaling information attributable to a payload of the frame.
A system for transmitting a wireless signal, the system comprising:
- a gateway configured to:
- generate a code block comprising a physical layer header of a physical layer frame, the code block identifying signaling information for a payload of the frame and further formatted to be useable by a receiver to identify a start of the frame;
- and
- transmit the physical layer header and the payload appended thereto, the payload transmitted according to the signaling information;
- and
- a terminal, in wireless communication with the gateway via satellite, and configured to:
- receive and process the wireless signal to generate a digitized stream of symbols comprising a physical layer signal representative of the wireless signal;
- search the digitized stream of symbols for the code block;
- and
- process a portion of the digitized stream comprising the code block to identify a start of frame location.
A gateway to generate a wireless signal, the gateway comprising:
- a receiver module configured to receive a set of data to be transmitted via a satellite destined for a user terminal;
- an adaptive coding and modulation module, communicatively coupled with the receiver module, and configured to dynamically assign a modulation and coding format for the set of data based on link conditions for the user terminal;
- a physical layer header encoder module, communicatively coupled with the adaptive coding and modulation module, and configured to generate a code block comprising a physical layer header identifying the assigned modulation and coding format, wherein the code block is formatted to be useable by a receiver to identify the start of frame;
- and
- a transmitter module, communicatively coupled with the encoder module, and configured to transmit the physical layer header and the set of data appended thereto, the set of data transmitted according to the assigned modulation and coding format.
A method of generating a wireless signal, the method comprising:
- setting signaling information attributable to a payload of a physical layer frame;
- generating a code block comprising a physical layer header of the physical layer frame, the code block identifying the signaling information and further formatted to be useable by a receiving terminal to identify a start of frame;
- and
- transmitting the physical layer frame comprising the physical layer header and the payload appended thereto, the payload transmitted according to the signaling information.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.