Diversity combiners for use in satellite and other communication systems. Such combiners are able to accommodate fast and dramatic signal fades and doppler shifts inherent in satellite communications by employing differential and common mode automatic phase control and differential and common mode signal weighting techniques. Phase control takes place in these combiners after signal weighting to decrease differential loop phase detector gradients and noise bandwidth as a function of signal-to-noise imbalance of the channels. An acquisition circuit is provided to deactivate the differential phase control loop when either signal falls below a predetermined level. During times when the faded signal reemerges, the combiner establishes optimal combining with minimum phase discontinuities on the output or phase lock reacquisition disturbances.
A space diversity receiver apparatus receives signals by two spatially separated antennas, controls the phase of the signal received by one of the antennas by a phase control circuit, combines the phase-controlled signal and the signal received by the other antenna by a combiner and outputs the combined signal. A digital detector digitally detects the center frequency level and the levels on high- and low-frequency sides of the center frequency of the combined signal. Phase is controlled in such a manner that the center frequency level will coincide with a set level and a deviation between the levels on the high- and low-frequency sides of the center frequency will become zero.
Combining signal images includes receiving signal images and performing the following to yield a weighted sum for at least one signal image. A phasor is generated from a signal image in accordance with a correlation reference, and a phase alignment of the signal image is adjusted to yield an adjusted signal image. A signal magnitude estimate is determined in accordance with the phasor, and a weight is determined in accordance with the signal magnitude estimate, where the weight reflects a signal-to-noise ratio of the signal image. The weight is applied to the adjusted signal image to yield a weighted sum for the signal image. The weighted sums are combined to yield a combined signal output.
Detection outputs 103 and 104 of phase-detection sections 9 and 19 of two reception circuits are input to phase difference detection sections 10 and 20, respectively. A detection output 103 indicating an instantaneous phase amount of each symbol as each phase output of a QPSK received signal is converted into phase difference detection outputs 105 and 106 each indicating a difference between the respective symbols. The output is input to a combination process section 23 where amplitude signals 101 and 102 are operated as weighting factors and vector combination so as to obtain a combination signal.
A selection system in a space diversity system of a mobile receiver combines the ultra high frequency signals after they have been frequency shifted to an intermediate frequency. The system combines the intermediate frequency signals depending on the ratio of the magnitudes of these signals. If the ratio of the magnitude of the received signals is equal to or greater than a preset magnitude level, for example, 5 db, a control unit selects only the received signal having the largest magnitude. Otherwise, the control unit linearly combines both received signals Specifically, if the absolute value of the difference in received phase signals is less than 90.degree., the output of a phase detector causes the control unit to pass both received signals to a summer that linearly combines them prior to demodulation. Otherwise, the control unit inverts the phase of one of the received signals prior to passing both received signals to the summer.
A method and apparatus for diversity-combining two electromagnetic signals (11,21) within a receiver (25). Two separated antennas (10,20) are employed. The antennas (10,20) are separated by some combination of spatial, polarization, and pattern separation. The first antenna (10) receives the first signal (11), and the second antenna (20) receives the second signal (21). Coupled to at least one of the antennas (10,20) is a circuit (12) for varying the gain and the phase of the signal (11,21) received at said antenna (10 or 20, respectively). The gain and the phase are constrained to be selected from within a finite set of preselected discrete gains and a finite set of preselected discrete phases. A search module (6) searches through all of the gain/phase combinations to optimize the signal-to-impairment ratio within the receiver (25). When the signal-to-impairment ratio is optimized, the gain and the phase are fixedly established. The search (6) is broken into two discrete searches, a relatively coarse search and a relatively fine search. The searching step (6) is typically performed whenever the signal-to-impairment ratio falls below a preselected value. A smart rounding module (14) can be used to recover the phase of the carrier of the combined signal (22) without any significant performance degradation.
