Apparatus and method for reduced computation amplifier gain control

1. A method for controlling a transmitter amplifier, comprising:

receiving a frequency band that includes an assigned channel, an adjacent frequency channel, and a communication signal from the transmitter amplifier in the assigned channel, the assigned channel and the adjacent channel being respective sub-bands of the frequency band;

estimating a distortion by the transmitter amplifier, wherein estimating the distortion includes estimating an adjacent frequency interference, the adjacent frequency interference including amplifier distortion components of the communication signal extending into the adjacent frequency channel, wherein estimating the adjacent frequency interference includes:

determining cross-correlation coefficients, between the communication signal and the adjacent frequency channel, and

estimating the adjacent channel interference, based at least in part on the cross-correlation coefficients; and

upon the estimated distortion by the transmitter amplifier, as indicated by the estimated adjacent channel interference, meeting a given condition, initiating communication of an operating point notice, toward a local control of the transmitter amplifier.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein initiating the communication of the operating point notice comprises wireless transmitting the operating point notice toward the local control.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein wireless transmission of the operating point notice toward the local control includes uplink transmitting, from an earth station, to a satellite, and downlink transmission from the satellite toward the local control.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein:

the adjacent frequency channel is a first adjacent frequency channel,

the cross-correlation coefficients are first adjacent channel cross-correlation coefficients, and

the frequency band includes a second adjacent frequency channel, the second adjacent frequency channel being another sub-band of the frequency band, and wherein the method further comprises:

estimating second adjacent channel cross-correlation coefficients, between the communication signal and the second adjacent frequency channel,

wherein estimating the adjacent channel interference is further based, at least in part, on the second adjacent channel cross-correlation coefficients.

5. The method of claim 4 , further comprising: applying a timing interpolation to the first adjacent frequency channel, or the second adjacent channel, or both, the timing interpolation being configured to compensate for delays in demodulating the communication signal.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein:

determining cross-correlation coefficients includes demodulating the communication signal to obtain a recovered symbol, and

the cross-correlation coefficients are each associated with a different time offset from the recovered symbol.

7. A method for controlling a transmitter amplifier, comprising:

receiving a frequency band that includes an assigned channel, an adjacent channel, and a communication signal from the transmitter amplifier in the assigned channel, the assigned channel and the adjacent channel being respective sub-bands of the frequency band;

determining cross-correlation coefficients, between the communication signal and the adjacent channel, wherein:

determining cross-correlation coefficients includes demodulating the communication signal to obtain a recovered symbol, and the cross-correlation coefficients are each associated with a different time offset from the recovered symbol;

estimating an adjacent channel interference based at least in part on the cross-correlation coefficients; and

upon the estimated adjacent channel interference meeting a given condition, initiating communication of an operating point notice, toward a local control of the transmitter amplifier, wherein:

demodulating the communication signal is configured to form a series of recovered symbols,

a reference time is a periodic reference time that aligns with the recovered symbols, and

the cross-correlation coefficients are each associated with a different time offset between the reference time and the adjacent channel.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein:

estimating adjacent channel interference includes estimating a correlation magnitude, based at least in part on a combination of the cross-correlation coefficients, and

the estimated adjacent channel interference is based at least in part on the estimated correlation magnitude.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein estimating the correlation magnitude is based, at least in part, on maximum-ratio combining of the cross-correlation coefficients.

10. The method of claim 8 , wherein the given condition is the estimated adjacent channel interference having a value that is at least a given maximum.

11. The method of claim 7 , wherein

the adjacent channel is a first adjacent channel,

the cross-correlation coefficients are first adjacent channel cross-correlation coefficients, and the frequency band further includes a second adjacent channel, and wherein the method further comprises:

generating a set of second adjacent channel cross-correlation coefficients, each of the second adjacent channel cross-correlation coefficients being associated with a different time offset between the reference time and the second adjacent channel,

wherein estimating correlation magnitude is further based, at least in part, on the set of second adjacent band cross-correlation coefficients.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein estimating correlation magnitude is based, at least in part, on maximum-ratio combining of the first adjacent channel cross-correlation coefficients and the second adjacent channel cross-correlation coefficients.

13. The method of claim 7 , wherein:

the different time offset between the reference time and adjacent channel comprises a plurality of different time offsets, and

the cross-correlation coefficients comprise a plurality of cross-correlation coefficients, each of the cross-correlation coefficients corresponding to a different time offset among the plurality of different time offsets.

14. The method of claim 7 , wherein:

the different time offset between the reference time and adjacent channel comprises at least M different time offsets, and

the cross-correlation coefficients comprise at least M cross-correlation coefficients, each of the at least M cross-correlation coefficients corresponding to a different time offset among M different time offsets.

15. The method of claim 14 , further comprising:

sampling the recovered symbol, at a sampling time aligned with the reference time, to obtain a symbol sample;

sampling the adjacent channel to obtain, associated with the symbol sample, a set of M adjacent channel samples, each corresponding to a different one among the N time offsets; and

generating the set of M cross-correlation coefficients, based on multiplying each of the M adjacent channel samples by the symbol sample, to form a corresponding set of M products, each of the M products being a corresponding one of the set of M cross-correlation coefficients.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein:

the adjacent channel is a first adjacent channel,

the frequency band further includes a second adjacent channel, the second adjacent channel being another sub-band of the frequency band,

the set of M adjacent channel samples is a set of M first adjacent channel samples, and

the corresponding M products are M first products, wherein the method further comprises:

sampling the second adjacent channel to obtain, associated with the symbol sample, a set of M second adjacent channel samples, each corresponding to a different one among the M different time offsets; and

generating a set of M second adjacent channel cross-correlation coefficients, based on multiplying each of the M second adjacent channel samples by the symbol sample, to form a corresponding M second products, each of the M second products being a corresponding one of the M second adjacent channel cross-correlation coefficients.

17. The method of claim 14 , wherein the set of M cross-correlation coefficients is a first set of M cross-correlation coefficients, wherein the method further comprises:

sampling a first and a second recovered symbol among the series of recovered symbols to obtain a respective first symbol sample and second symbol sample;

sampling the adjacent channel to obtain, associated with the first symbol sample, a first set of M adjacent channel samples, each of the M adjacent channel samples corresponding to one of the different time offsets, relative to the first symbol sample;

multiplying each of the first set of M adjacent channel samples by the first symbol sample to produce a first set of M products;

performing another sampling of the adjacent channel to obtain, associated with the second recovered symbol, a second set of M adjacent channel samples, each of the second set of M adjacent channel samples corresponding to a different one of the M time offsets, relative to second symbol sample among the set of M time offsets;

multiplying each of the second set of M adjacent channel samples by the second symbol sample to form a second set of M products;

adding each product among the second set of M products to a corresponding product among the first set of M products to generate a set of M sum-of-products; and

generating a set of M cross-correlation coefficients, each of the cross-correlation coefficients based at least in part on a corresponding sum-of-products among the set of M sum-of-products.

18. A receiver circuit for controlling a transmitter amplifier back-off, comprising:

a receiver antenna;

a filter coupled to the receiver antenna and configured to pass an assigned frequency channel and an adjacent frequency channel, the assigned frequency channel and the adjacent frequency channel being respective sub-bands of the frequency band, a communication signal from the transmitter amplifier being in the assigned channel;

a logic that includes a cross-correlation coefficient logic and an adjacent channel interference estimation logic, configured to estimate a distortion by the transmitter amplifier, the distortion including components of the communication signal extending into the adjacent frequency channel, wherein:

the cross-correlation coefficient logic is configured to generate a set of cross-correlation coefficients, between the assigned channel and the adjacent channel, and

the adjacent channel interference estimation logic is configured to estimate the adjacent channel interference based at least in part on the set of cross-correlation coefficients, the estimated adjacent channel interference being the estimate of the distortion; and

an operating point notice logic, configured to generate an operating point notice in response to the estimated distortion by the transmitter amplifier, as indicated by the estimated adjacent channel interference meeting a given condition.

19. The receiver circuit of claim 18 , wherein the cross-correlation coefficient logic comprises:

a demodulator logic, configured to demodulate a signal in the assigned frequency channel and output a corresponding recovered symbol stream;

a recovered symbol sampler, configured to sample the recovered symbol stream and generate, for each symbol in the recovered symbol stream, a corresponding symbol sample; and

an adjacent channel sampler, configured to sample the adjacent channel at a rate and timing that generates, in association with each symbol sample, M adjacent channel samples, the M adjacent channel samples corresponding to M different time offsets relative to the symbol sample,

wherein the cross-correlation coefficient logic is configured to

multiply a symbol sample among the symbol samples by each of the M corresponding adjacent channel samples, to generate a set of M products,

store the set of M products in a set of M accumulators, to initialize a set of M sums-of-products,

repeat for K iterations an operation that includes

multiply a next symbol sample among the symbol samples by each of the M adjacent channel samples corresponding to the next symbol sample, to generate a new set of M products, and

add the new set of M products to the set of M accumulators, to update the set of M sums-of-products, and

output the content of the set of M accumulators as a set of M cross-correlation coefficients.

20. The receiver circuit of claim 19 , wherein the adjacent channel interference estimation logic is configured to estimate the cross-correlation, based at least in part on applying different weightings to the cross-correlation coefficients in the set of cross-correlation coefficients.

21. The receiver circuit of claim 18 , further comprising:

a demodulator logic, configured to demodulate a signal in the assigned frequency channel and output a corresponding recovered first symbol and recovered second symbol;

a recovered symbol sampler, configured to sample the recovered first symbol and the recovered second symbol, and generate a corresponding first symbol sample and second symbol sample; and

an adjacent channel sampler, configured to sample the adjacent frequency channel at a rate and timing that generates, in association with the first symbol sample, a first set of M adjacent channel samples, corresponding to M different time offsets relative to the first symbol sample, and in association with the first symbol sample a second set of M adjacent channel samples, corresponding to M different time offsets relative to the second symbol sample,

wherein the cross-correlation coefficient logic is configured to

multiply the first symbol sample among the symbol samples by each of the first set of M adjacent channel samples, to generate a first set of M products,

multiply the second symbol sample among the symbol samples by each of the second set of M adjacent channel samples, to generate a second set of M products, a

add each product among the second set of M products to a corresponding product among the first set of M products to generate a set of M sum-of-products, and

generate a set of M cross-correlation coefficients, each of the cross-correlation coefficients based at least in part on a corresponding sum-of-products among the set of M sum-of-products.

22. The receiver circuit of claim 21 , further comprising:

a timing interpolator, in the filter or in series with the filter, in the path of the adjacent frequency channel and configured to compensate for a delay in the demodulator logic.