Frequency band adaptive wireless communication
View Patent ↗A system, apparatus and method is disclosed for multiband wireless communication. Frequency bands and/or transmission formats are identified as available within a range for wireless communication. Signal quality metrics for each frequency band are evaluated by a receiver to identify qualified frequency bands. The qualified frequency bands can be ranked according to one or more signal quality metrics, where the list of qualified bands can be communicated to a transmitter. The transmitter is arranged to evaluate the list of qualified bands and select a communication method based on the available frequency bands and a selected communication optimization scenario. Multiple frequency bands and communication methods can be utilized by the transmitter such that a combination of licensed, unlicensed, semilicensed, and overlapped frequency bands can be simultaneously used for communication. The receiver continually monitors communications and can report link performance to the transmitter for adaptive control of the selected communication methods.
1. A frequency band adaptive wireless communication system, comprising:
a means for identifying one or more available transmission formats of a plurality of transmission formats for a radio communication link;
a means for obtaining a transmission goal for the radio communications link;
a means for evaluating the one or more available transmission formats based on the transmission goal, each of the one or more available transmission formats comprising a possible combination of at least two frequency bands, wherein the evaluation of the one or more available transmission formats is based at least in part on a radio signal quality metric associated with each of the at least two frequency bands;
a means for selecting a transmission format for the radio communication link based at least on the evaluation of the one or more transmission formats; and
a means for causing the radio communication link to be established using the selected transmission format.
2. The frequency band adaptive wireless communication system of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the one or more available transmission formats simultaneously uses the at least two frequency bands for the radio communication link.
3. The frequency band adaptive wireless communication system of claim 1 , wherein the available transmission formats further include at least one member of a group comprising a single transmission frequency format, a multiple frequency transmission format, a band of transmission frequencies format, a multiband multiplexing format, a frequency diversity format, a frequency hopping format, a band hopping format, and an 802.11 format.
4. The frequency band adaptive wireless communication system of claim 1 , further comprising a means for monitoring a radio signal quality metric associated with the radio communication link.
5. The frequency band adaptive wireless communication system of claim 3 , wherein the means for monitoring is configured to evaluate the radio signal quality metric for at least one of a noise level, an interference level, a noise plus interference level, a received signal strength indicator (RSSI) level, a signal-to-noise rating, a signal-to-noise-plus-interference rating, a bit-error-rate (BER), a symbol-error-rate (SER), a block-error-rate (BLER), a frame-error-rate (FER), a mean-square error (MSE), a spectral integrity and a data throughput rate.
6. The frequency band adaptive wireless communication system of claim 1 , wherein the means for selecting is arranged to select at least two transmission formats.
7. The frequency band adaptive wireless communication system of claim 1 , wherein the means for evaluating comprises at least one of an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a micro-processor, a micro-controller, a CISC processor, a RISC processor, a digital-signal processor (DSP), and a baseband processor.
8. The frequency band adaptive wireless communication system of claim 1 , wherein the transmission goal comprises at least one of maximize link data throughput, maximize coverage distance, minimize power consumption, maximize link reliability, and minimize signal interference.
9. The frequency band adaptive wireless communication system of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the at least two frequency bands corresponds to at least one of a licensed frequency band, an unlicensed frequency band, a semilicensed frequency band, and an overlapped frequency band.
10. A method for selecting a transmission format in a frequency band adaptive wireless communication system, comprising:
identifying one or more available transmission formats from a plurality of transmission formats for a radio communication link;
identifying a transmission goal for the radio communication link;
evaluating the one or more available transmission formats based on the transmission goal, each of the one or more available transmission formats comprising a possible combination of at least two frequency bands, wherein the evaluation of the one or more available transmission formats is based at least in part on a radio signal quality metric associated with each of the at least two frequency bands;
ranking each of the available transmission formats based on radio signal quality metric and the transmission goal;
selecting a transmission format for the radio communication link based upon the ranking; and
causing the radio communication link to be established using the selected transmission format.
11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the plurality of transmission formats includes at least one of a single transmission frequency format, a multiple frequency transmission format, a band of transmission frequencies format, a multiband multiplexing format, a frequency diversity format, a frequency hopping format, a band hopping format, and an 802.11 format.
12. The method of claim 10 , wherein the radio signal quality metric includes at least one of a signal strength, a radio link quality, a spectral integrity, a data throughput, a bit-error rate a symbol error rate, a block error rate, a frame error rate, a mean-square error, a signal-to-noise rating, a noise level, an interference level, and a noise-plus interference level.
13. The method of claim 10 , wherein the collected information is retrieved from a look-up table that is indexed according to the transmission formats, wherein the look-up table includes at least one of power consumption, link data throughput, transmission SNR, SINR gains, and signal range.
14. The method of claim 10 , wherein the radio signal quality metric is retrieved from a receiver estimation, wherein the receiver estimation comprises at least one member of a group comprising fast fading, slow fading, Rayleigh fading, Ricean fading, K-factor, receiver signal strength, channel estimation, and propagation condition estimation.
15. The method of claim 10 , wherein the transmission goal comprises at least one of maximize link data throughput, maximize coverage distance, minimize power consumption, maximize link reliability, and minimize signal interference.
16. The method of claim 10 , wherein at least one of the at least two frequency bands corresponds to at least one of a licensed frequency band, an unlicensed frequency band, a semilicensed frequency band, and an overlapped frequency band.
17. The method of claim 10 , further comprising detecting a change in a signal quality associated with one or more of the available transmission formats and updating the ranking based on the change in the signal quality.
18. The method of claim 10 , further comprising monitoring a signal quality associated with one or more of the available transmission formats, and updating the ranking based on the monitored signal quality.
19. The method of claim 18 , wherein monitoring the signal quality is initiated in response to at least of a user request, a predetermined schedule, a defined time interval, a system generated request, and continuously.
20. The method of claim 10 , wherein at least one of the one or more available transmission formats simultaneously uses the at least two frequency bands for the radio communication link.
21. A computer-readable, tangible storage medium having one or more computer-executable modules for selecting a transmission format in a frequency band adaptive wireless communication system, the one or more computer-executable modules comprising:
a first module in communication with one or more data stores, the first module configured to:
identify one or more available transmission formats of a plurality of transmission formats for a radio communication link;
obtain a transmission goal for the radio communications link;
evaluate the one or more available transmission formats based on the transmission goal, each of the one or more available transmission formats comprising a possible combination of at least two frequency bands, wherein the evaluation of the one or more available transmission formats is based at least in part on a radio signal quality metric associated with each of the at least two frequency bands;
select a transmission format for the radio communication link based at least on the evaluation of the one or more transmission formats; and
cause the radio communication link to be established using the selected transmission format.