System and apparatus for cascading and redistributing HDTV signals

1. A gateway for redistributing an information signal to a user device within a service area, comprising:

a spectrum detector capable of monitoring a specified spectrum and identifying a section of a specified spectrum including a plurality of cells of white space sufficient to accommodate a required bandwidth associated with the information signal,

a transmitter for transmitting to the user device the information signal over the plurality of cells identified in the section of the spectrum; and

a control device for transmitting and receiving bidirectional control messages,

wherein the spectrum detector comprises:

a tunable RF module for scanning specified spectrum sections and capturing any wireless signal present in the spectrum sections;

an analog to digital converter for converting the captured wireless signal to a digital signal;

a wavelet coefficient calculator for measuring an energy of the digital signal in each of a plurality of cells formed within the specified spectrum sections; and

a sorting unit for selecting the k pieces of white space from the cells where the energy of the digital signal is under a threshold,

wherein the wavelet coefficient calculator uses a wavelet function ψ α,τ (t) providing a concentration of an energy of the cells, in both time and frequency within a finite interval, according to this equation: ∫ψ α,τ (t)dt=0.

2. A gateway for redistributing an information signal to a user device within a service area, comprising:

a spectrum detector capable of monitoring a specified spectrum and identifying a section of a specified spectrum including a plurality of cells of white space sufficient to accommodate a required bandwidth associated with the information signal,

a transmitter for transmitting to the user device the information signal over the plurality of cells identified in the section of the spectrum; and

a control device for transmitting and receiving bidirectional control messages,

wherein the spectrum detector comprises:

a tunable RF module for scanning specified spectrum sections and capturing any wireless signal present in the spectrum sections;

an analog to digital converter for converting the captured wireless signal to a digital signal;

a wavelet coefficient calculator for measuring an energy of the digital signal in each of a plurality of cells formed within the specified spectrum sections; and

a sorting unit for selecting the k pieces of white space from the cells where the energy of the digital signal is under a threshold,

wherein the wavelet coefficient calculator is capable of measuring an energy of the digital signal in each cell by calculating a wavelet coefficient for the digital signal detected in the respective cell,

wherein the wavelet coefficient calculator uses shifted variants of a wavelet function ψ α,τ (t), wherein the wavelet coefficient calculator obtains the shifted variants by performing integer shifts of an energy concentration center of the wavelet function, such that adjacent shifted waveforms are orthogonal.

3. A gateway for redistributing an information signal to a user device within a service area, comprising:

a spectrum detector capable of monitoring a specified spectrum and identifying a section of a specified spectrum including a plurality of cells of white space sufficient to accommodate a required bandwidth associated with the information signal,

a transmitter for transmitting to the user device the information signal over the plurality of cells identified in the section of the spectrum; and

a control device for transmitting and receiving bidirectional control messages,

wherein the transmitter comprises:

a baseband processor for converting the information signal into a baseband-signal and parsing the baseband signal into n signal components where n is an integer, nε[1;k]; and

a distributor unit with k branches for modulating n carrier signals, each carrier signal having a frequency corresponding to a respective piece of white space, with a signal component, and broadcasting n RF signal components over the respective piece of white space,

wherein each branch of the distributor unit modulates the baseband signal whenever a 6 MHz piece of spectrum has been identified by the spectrum detector.

4. A gateway for redistributing an information signal to a user device within a service area, comprising:

a spectrum detector capable of monitoring a specified spectrum and identifying a section of a specified spectrum including a plurality of cells of white space sufficient to accommodate a required bandwidth associated with the information signal,

a transmitter for transmitting to the user device the information signal over the plurality of cells identified in the section of the spectrum; and

a control device for transmitting and receiving bidirectional control messages,

wherein the transmitter comprises:

a baseband processor for converting the information signal into a baseband-signal and parsing the baseband signal into n signal components where n is an integer, nε[1;k]; and

a distributor unit with k branches for modulating n carrier signals, each carrier signal having a frequency corresponding to a respective piece of white space, with a signal component, and broadcasting n RF signal components over the respective piece of white space,

wherein for n=1, all carrier signals are modulated with the same baseband signal for obtaining spatial diversity.

5. A method for redistributing an information signal of a specified bandwidth, within a service area, comprising:

identifying k pieces of white space sufficient to accommodate the bandwidth of the information signal, where k is an integer, k≧1;

broadcasting the information signal over the identified k pieces of white space; and

transmitting and receiving bidirectional control messages,

wherein identifying k pieces comprises:

scanning specified spectrum sections and capturing any wireless signal present in the specified spectrum sections;

converting the captured wireless signal to a digital signal;

measuring an energy of the digital signal in each of a plurality of cells formed within the specified spectrum sections; and

selecting the k pieces of white space from the cells where the energy of the digital signal is under a threshold,

wherein the scanning specified spectrum sections uses a wavelet function ψ α,τ (t) selected to concentrate an energy of the cell, in both time and frequency within a finite interval, according to this equation: ∫ψ α,τ (t)dt=0.

6. A method for redistributing an information signal of a specified bandwidth, within a service area, comprising:

identifying k pieces of white space sufficient to accommodate the bandwidth of the information signal, where k is an integer, k≧1;

broadcasting the information signal over the identified k pieces of white space; and

transmitting and receiving bidirectional control messages,

wherein identifying k pieces comprises:

scanning specified spectrum sections and capturing any wireless signal present in the specified spectrum sections;

converting the captured wireless signal to a digital signal;

measuring an energy of the digital signal in each of a plurality of cells formed within the specified spectrum sections; and

selecting the k pieces of white space from the cells where the energy of the digital signal is under a threshold,

wherein said measuring an energy comprises measuring the energy of the digital signal in each cell by calculating a wavelet coefficient for the digital signal detected in the respective cell, and

wherein calculating a wavelet coefficient uses shifted variants of the wavelet function ψ α,τ (t−τ), and includes obtaining the shifted variants by performing integer shifts of an energy concentration center of the wavelet function, such that adjacent shifted waveforms are orthogonal.

7. A method for redistributing an information signal of a specified bandwidth, within a service area, comprising:

identifying k pieces of white space sufficient to accommodate the bandwidth of the information signal, where k is an integer, k≧1;

broadcasting the information signal over the identified k pieces of white space; and

transmitting and receiving bidirectional control messages,

wherein said broadcasting the information signal comprises:

converting the information signal into a baseband signal;

parsing the baseband signal into n signal components, where n is an integer nε[1;k];

selecting a carrier frequency for each of the k pieces of white space and providing k carrier signals of a respective carrier frequency;

modulating each of the k carrier signals with a signal component, and

broadcasting the k signal components over the respective piece of white space,

wherein for n=1, all carrier signals are modulated with the same baseband signal for obtaining spatial diversity.