JP2008259065A - Error vector evaluating method and adaptive sub-carrier modulating method, and frequency-division communication method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To correctly evaluate an error vector magnitude even when an influence of a delay wave is large. <P>SOLUTION: Evaluation information (evaluation symbol) to be stored in a plurality of blocks (evaluation blocks) constituting a packet is formed in codes (PN codes) changing at pseudo-random by the blocks. Therefore, even when mutual correlation between pieces of evaluation information by the blocks decreases and the influence of the delay wave on a desired wave (direct wave) is large, the delay wave can be regarded as Gaussian additive noise. Consequently, the delay wave can be evaluated as the noise, so the error vector magnitude EVM can correctly be evaluated. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  In the present invention, evaluation information including a predetermined bit string that is known on both the transmission side and the reception side is stored in any block constituting the packet and transmitted, and the evaluation information is restored on the reception side. The present invention relates to an error vector evaluation method for evaluating an error vector of a complex symbol, an adaptive subcarrier modulation method, and a frequency division communication method.

  Recently, Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) modulation, which is one of multi-carrier modulation that modulates by distributing 1-channel data to multiple carriers (sub-carriers), is used for wireless communication such as wireless LAN. Alternatively, it is used in wired communication such as power line carrier communication (PLC). In OFDM, since a plurality of subcarriers are orthogonal to each other, in a normal reception state, symbols transmitted on each subcarrier have transmission path characteristics and noise at the corresponding subcarrier frequency (hereinafter referred to as transmission characteristics and Only affected by. The degree of the influence of the transmission characteristics differs for each subcarrier, which greatly affects the overall transmission rate. On the other hand, if the modulation method of each subcarrier is optimally determined according to the transmission characteristics, the transmission rate can be improved. As a method for adaptively determining the modulation method for each subcarrier according to the transmission characteristics in this way, a so-called adaptive subcarrier modulation method is employed (see, for example, Patent Document 1).

  In order to perform adaptive subcarrier modulation, the specified bit error rate is secured under the condition of constant transmission power, and each subcarrier (or multiple subcarriers) is set so that the overall bit rate is as high as possible. In some cases, a method of assigning a modulation method may be employed. If the reception S / N ratio of each subcarrier is obtained, which modulation method specifies the bit error rate specified by the S / N ratio for each modulation method. It can be evaluated whether it can be secured. If there is a modulation method that can secure the specified bit error rate, there is a modulation method that can secure the specified bit error rate by allocating the modulation method having the largest number of bits per symbol to the subcarrier. Otherwise, it is determined that the subcarrier is not used, and an optimal modulation method can be assigned to each subcarrier by performing the above determination for all subcarriers.

  Here, in multicarrier modulation including OFDM, a complex symbol is used as a symbol transmitted on each subcarrier, and it is known on both the transmission side and the reception side when evaluating the transmission characteristics of each subcarrier. The error vector magnitude (EVM) of a complex symbol obtained by digitally modulating evaluation information consisting of a predetermined bit string is an error vector between the received evaluation information complex symbol and the known evaluation information complex symbol (Error Vector Magnitude: EVM) This EVM is used instead of the S / N ratio.

  For example, the evaluation information is modulated by BPSK (Binary Phase Shift Keying) and each of a plurality of complex symbol sequences in which the in-phase (real number) component I is “1” or “−1” and the quadrature (imaginary number) component Q is “0”. If transmission is performed by subcarriers, when the kth received symbol (complex symbol) in the mth subcarrier is represented by (Ikm, Qkm (= 0)), the error vector magnitude EVM of the mth subcarrier. | M is expressed as follows.

N is the number of symbols to be evaluated.

Conventionally, the known evaluation information as described above is stored in a synchronous block, or is stored in an evaluation block separately provided after a data block (see, for example, Patent Document 2).
JP 2006-333046 A JP 2004-343551 A

  By the way, in the block transmission system represented by OFDM, a redundant signal called a guard interval is added to the OFDM symbol on the transmission side in order to suppress the influence of delay waves. This guard interval is obtained by connecting the same signal as the part of the second half of the OFDM symbol to the first half of the OFDM symbol (see FIG. 8). Therefore, as long as the temporal overlap between the direct wave (desired wave) W1 and the delayed wave W2 occurs only in the guard interval GI, the original OFDM symbol excluding the guard interval GI has an influence of the delayed wave. Never reach.

  However, in wired communication such as power line carrier communication, the delay profile varies greatly depending on the environment. Therefore, the length of the guard interval GI (guard interval length) Tg so as to suppress the influence of the delayed wave and minimize the redundancy. For example, the guard interval length Tg is set to a quarter of the original OFDM symbol symbol length (the number of samples in the inverse discrete Fourier transform) N under certain assumptions. It was done to design.

  For example, an OFDM symbol x (nT) including a GI with a guard interval in which the symbol length N is 64 and the 49th to 64th samples are copied is expressed by the following equation.

On the receiving side, OFDM symbols from which the guard interval GI is removed are subjected to discrete Fourier transform to generate complex symbols. Therefore, the OFDM symbol x (nT) before the discrete Fourier transform is expressed by the following equation.

  Here, as shown in FIG. 9, when the overlap of the delayed wave W2 and the direct wave W1 exceeds the guard interval GI, for example, the delayed wave exceeding the guard interval length Tg in the OFDM symbol after the guard interval GI is removed. When W2 samples (samples 1 to 63) are overlapped with samples 0 to l-1 in the desired wave W1, the OFDM symbol x (nT) of the received signal is expressed by the following equation.

  Here, since the symbols of the evaluation information are known and they are all the same, X (k) = X (k) ′ is established, and therefore the above equation can be modified as follows. Here, K and L are the gain of the direct wave (desired wave) and the gain of the delayed wave, respectively.

  Thus, in the above conventional example, since the cross-correlation between a plurality of symbols of the evaluation information is high, if the influence of the delayed wave is large as described above, the desired signal and the delayed signal cannot be distinguished from each other, There is a problem that a signal including a delay signal is erroneously determined as a desired signal, and the magnitude of the error vector cannot be correctly evaluated.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide an error vector evaluation method and an adaptive subcarrier modulation method capable of correctly evaluating the magnitude of an error vector even when the influence of a delayed wave is large. Another object is to provide a frequency division communication method.

  In order to achieve the above object, the invention of claim 1 includes at least a synchronization block for establishing synchronization, a control block storing control information, a data block for data transmission, and information stored in each block A modulation method for transmitting a packet in which a bit string is modulated into a complex symbol by a predetermined digital modulation method, restoring the complex symbol from the transmitted signal, and digitally demodulating the complex symbol to generate the information bit example or Evaluation information consisting of a predetermined bit string that is used in the communication method and is known on both the transmission side and the reception side is stored in any block of the packet and transmitted, and the evaluation information is restored on the reception side In an error vector evaluation method for evaluating an error vector of a complex symbol, a plurality of packets constituting a packet Stores the evaluation information into the lock, the evaluation information stored in each block, and forming the code that varies pseudo-randomly for each block.

  The invention of claim 2 is characterized in that, in the invention of claim 1, the evaluation information is formed by a pseudo-random code generated by a PN sequence.

  According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the first or second aspect of the present invention, when a packet is transmitted by a multicarrier modulation signal, another subcarrier is transmitted using a signal of at least two subcarriers corresponding to the block of evaluation information. The error vector is evaluated for each subcarrier after correcting the phase.

  In order to achieve the above object, a fourth aspect of the present invention provides an adaptive subcarrier modulation method in which transmission is performed using subcarriers adaptively selected according to transmission characteristics for each of a plurality of subcarriers. A subcarrier is selected based on the error vector evaluated by the error vector evaluation method described in any one of?

  In order to achieve the above object, a fifth aspect of the present invention relates to a frequency division communication method in which one or more subcarriers are divided into a plurality of regions, and the same information is transmitted by subcarriers in each region. A subcarrier in any of a plurality of regions is selected and received based on the error vector evaluated by the error vector evaluation method described in any one of Items 1 to 3.

  According to the present invention, since the evaluation information stored in the plurality of blocks constituting the packet is formed by a code that changes pseudo-randomly for each block, the cross-correlation between the evaluation information for each block is reduced. As a result, even when the influence of the delay wave on the desired wave is large, the delay wave can be regarded as Gaussian additive noise, so that the magnitude of the error vector can be correctly evaluated.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of an error vector evaluation method, an adaptive subcarrier modulation method, and a frequency division communication method according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

  First, the configuration of a communication apparatus that implements each of the methods according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. The communication apparatus according to the present embodiment includes a transmitter Tx and a receiver Rx, and performs packet communication using an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (hereinafter referred to as “OFDM”) modulated signal (hereinafter referred to as “OFDM signal”). Is going. However, the transmission path for transmitting a signal from the transmitter Tx to the receiver Rx may be either wired or wireless.

  In the transmitter Tx, the input transmission data (information bit string) is scrambled (randomized) by the scrambler 10 so that the same bit value does not continue, error-correction-coded by the convolutional encoder 11, and the bit interleaver 12 Are interleaved (randomized) by the mapper 13 on the complex plane, and the mapper 13 symbolizes the bits as complex numbers (digital modulation), and each symbol is sequentially sent to an inverse discrete Fourier transform (IFFT) 14. The discrete base Fourier transform is performed, and the latter half of the time signal (hereinafter referred to as “complex baseband OFDM signal”) output from the inverse discrete Fourier transform 14 by the GI addition / framing unit 15 is copied. An OFDM symbol is generated by adding to a band OFDM signal. Further, the oversampling unit 16 performs oversampling at a sampling period in a subsequent DAC (digital / analog codec) unit 17, then performs digital / analog conversion in the DAC unit 17, and the analog circuit 18 performs frequency conversion of the baseband OFDM signal. To transmit the OFDM signal shifted to the necessary frequency band to the transmission line. When the GI addition / framing unit 15 generates an OFDM symbol, the synchronization pattern held by the synchronization block unit 19 is stored in the synchronization block.

  On the other hand, in the receiver Rx, the OFDM signal transmitted through the transmission path is frequency-converted by the analog circuit 20 and analog / digital converted by the ADC (Analog / Digital Codec) unit 21, and is described later by the downsampling unit 22. After down-sampling to the number of samples of the discrete Fourier transform to be performed, the GI removal unit 23 removes the guard interval. However, in order for the GI removal unit 23 to remove the guard interval, it is necessary that symbol timing synchronization is established by the preamble symbol for synchronization stored in the synchronization block of the received packet. The complex baseband OFDM signal from which the guard interval is removed is subjected to discrete Fourier transform by a discrete Fourier transformer (FFT) 24 to generate a complex symbol example from the complex baseband OFDM signal. The generated complex symbol sequence is converted into a soft decision metric value by the demapper 25 and deinterleaved in units of data bits by the deinterleaver 26. Then, the deinterleaved soft decision metric value is decoded by the Viterbi decoder 27 and descrambled by the descrambler 28 to reproduce the transmission data (information bit string).

  In the communication apparatus of this embodiment, in order to implement the error vector evaluation method according to the present invention, a PN code generation unit 1 that generates a pseudo random noise (PN) code by a PN sequence, and the generated PN code The transmitter Tx includes a BPSK modulation unit 2 that performs BPSK (Binary Phase Shift Keying) modulation, and also generates a PN code by a PN sequence, and a BPSK modulation unit that BPSK modulates the generated PN code. 4 and the difference symbol (error vector magnitude: EVM) between the complex symbol of the evaluation information obtained by modulation by the BPSK modulation unit 4 and the complex symbol generated by the discrete Fourier transformer 24 for each subcarrier. The receiver Rx includes an EVM evaluation unit 5 that evaluates the transmission characteristics of the receiver Rx.

The PN code generation units 1 and 3 include, for example, a linear feedback shift register corresponding to a polynomial of S (x) = x ⁷ + x ⁴ +1, and includes a shift register SR and a parity generator PG as shown in FIG. Yes. When all the initial values of the shift register SR are set to 1, the PN code generation units 1 and 3 have 00001110, 11110010, 11001001, 00000010, 00101110, 00101110, 10110110, 00001100, 11010100, 11100111, 10110100, 00101010, 11111010, 01010001, 10111000 1111111 and a 127-bit cyclic sequence (PN sequence) are generated. If the PN sequence generated by the PN code generation units 1 and 3 is BPSK modulated by the BPSK modulation units 2 and 4, a 127 symbol binary sequence (binary symbol) is obtained. As another binary sequence generation method, 127 binary sequences calculated in advance may be stored in a memory and sequentially output.

  For example, assuming that there are 52 subcarriers that can be used in the communication apparatus according to the present embodiment, the binary symbols (hereinafter referred to as “evaluation symbols”) obtained by the BPSK modulation unit 2 are inversely discrete Fourier-sampled by 52 samples. The converter 14 converts the signal into a complex baseband OFDM signal, and the GI addition / framing unit 15 copies the 48th to 63rd samples and adds them to the complex baseband OFDM signal. An OFDM symbol for one block is generated. The EVM evaluation OFDM symbols are repeatedly generated using the evaluation symbols until a predetermined number of symbols is reached.

  As shown in FIG. 3A, the GI addition / framing unit generates an OFDM symbol by connecting an evaluation block storing EVM evaluation OFDM symbols for 128 blocks after a synchronization block, a control block, and a data block. Here, it is conceivable to transmit an EVM evaluation OFDM symbol using a packet dedicated to EVM evaluation, but if an evaluation block is connected after the data block as described above, the EVM evaluation OFDM symbol stored in the evaluation block Therefore, the accuracy of EVM evaluation can be improved. In particular, this is an effective method in adaptive subcarrier modulation in which the EVM for each subcarrier is accurately compared and the use of subcarriers is determined based on the magnitude relationship.

  Alternatively, as shown in FIG. 3B, the evaluation symbol may be stored in the synchronization block together with the preamble or the like. For example, it is effective when the data is divided into a plurality of regions to which one to a plurality of subcarriers belong, and the same data is assigned to each region and the data of the subcarrier having the smallest EVM is adopted.

  In the receiver Rx, a complex baseband OFDM signal obtained by removing the guard interval from the received OFDM signal is subjected to discrete Fourier transform by the discrete Fourier transformer 24 to generate a complex symbol example from the complex baseband OFDM signal for EVM evaluation. To do. Then, in the EVM evaluation unit 5, the complex symbol of the evaluation information obtained by BPSK modulation of the complex symbol sequence generated by the discrete Fourier transformer 24 and the PN code generated by the PN code generation unit 3 by the BPSK modulation unit 4 Find the error vector. That is, the binary symbols (evaluation symbols) d1 and d2 output from the BPSK modulation unit 4 are mapped on the I axis as shown in FIG. 4, but the evaluation symbol d1 ′ obtained from the received signal is a thermal noise or The original evaluation symbol d1 may be mapped to a point other than on the I axis due to the influence of the delay wave, the bit width limitation (fixed point effect) of the digital circuit, the influence of the deviation of the reference frequency, and the like. A vector heading from the received point to the point where the received evaluation symbol d1 ′ is mapped is defined as an error vector EV, and the EVM evaluation unit 5 calculates the magnitude EVM of the error vector EV. However, the evaluation of the transmission characteristics based on the error vector size EVM is performed by the average value obtained for the number of necessary evaluation symbols for each subcarrier.

By the way, when the direct wave of the subcarrier is affected by the delay wave, it is considered that the evaluation symbol d1 ′ transmitted by the subcarrier includes phase distortion due to the delay wave. Therefore, the EVM evaluation unit 5 determines other subcarriers SC1 to SCm-1, SCm + 1 to SCm + from phase information of a plurality of predetermined subcarriers SCm and SCm + k as shown in FIG. The phase distortion of k−1, SCm + k + 1 to SC _N (where N is the total number of subcarriers) is corrected.

For example, assuming that the amplitude is 1, the evaluation symbol d1 is expressed as exp (jθ), and if the transfer function of the transmission path is Hexp (jθ _H ), the received evaluation symbol d1 ′ is expressed by the following equation.

d1 ′ = exp (jθ) · Hexp (jθ _H ) = Hexp [j (θ _H + θ)]
When the evaluation symbol d1 ′ is multiplied by the conjugate complex number, d1 ′ · exp (−jθ) = Hexp [j (θ _H + θ)] · exp (−jθ) = Hexp (jθ _H )
Thus, the transfer function Hexp (jθ _H ) of the transmission line can be identified. Here, when Q / I is examined, tan θ _H can be obtained, and the phase distortion θ _H can be identified by referring to a data table prepared in advance.

Then, the phase distortions θ _H (: SCm) and θ _H (: SCm + k) obtained for the two subcarriers SCm and SCm + k are plotted with the horizontal axis on the horizontal axis as shown in FIG. 5B. , Plotted in an orthogonal coordinate system with the vertical axis as the phase, and the phase distortion in the subcarriers SCm + 1 to SCm + k-1 between the two subcarriers SCm and SCm + k is determined by interpolation, carrier SCm, phase distortion in the sub-carrier SC1~SCm-1, SCm + k + 1~SC N outside the SCm + k can be determined by extrapolation.

  Thus, in the EVM evaluation method of this embodiment, evaluation information (evaluation symbols) stored in a plurality of blocks (evaluation blocks) constituting a packet is formed by a code (PN code) that changes pseudo-randomly for each block. As a result, the cross-correlation between evaluation information for each block is low, and as a result, even when the influence of the delayed wave on the desired wave (direct wave) is large, the delayed wave can be regarded as Gaussian additive noise. In addition, since the delayed wave can be evaluated as noise, the magnitude EVM of the error vector can be correctly evaluated.

In the adaptive subcarrier modulation method, whether to use the subcarrier modulation is determined based on the transmission characteristics of each subcarrier evaluated by the EVM evaluation method of this embodiment. Specifically, as shown in FIG. 6, when the signal-to-noise ratio SNR is the vertical axis and the horizontal axis is the subcarrier frequency, the SNR of each subcarrier (EVM is defined as the reciprocal of SNR) is a threshold value. compared to SNR _Th, using only subcarriers SNR exceeds the threshold _{SNR Th.} However, there are cases where the subcarriers are divided into several groups to determine whether or not each group can be used.

Further, in the frequency division communication method, for example, as shown in FIG. 7, 15 subcarriers are divided into 3 groups in total, 5 for each frequency band, and the first group of subcarriers SC _1n and 2nd group are divided. The transmitter Tx transmits the same data for the subcarrier SC _2n and the third group of subcarriers SC _3n (where n = 1, 2, 3, 4, 5). In the receiver Rx, the SNRs of the subcarriers of each group to which the same data is allocated, for example, SC ₁₁ , SC ₂₁ , SC ₃₁ are compared, and the group having the highest SNR among the three groups is compared. A subcarrier (a third group of subcarriers SC _{31 in} FIG. 7) is selected, and demodulation processing is performed only on the selected subcarrier.

  In either the adaptive subcarrier modulation method or the frequency division communication method, EVM evaluation for subcarriers is an important requirement, and an appropriate subcarrier can be determined by employing the EVM evaluation method of this embodiment. it can.

It is a block diagram of the communication apparatus in this embodiment. It is a block diagram of the PN code generation part in the same as the above. (A), (b) is explanatory drawing of the OFDM symbol in the same as the above. It is explanatory drawing of the error vector in the same as the above. (A), (b) is explanatory drawing of the phase correction in the same as the above. It is explanatory drawing of the adaptive subcarrier modulation method in the same as the above. It is explanatory drawing of the frequency division communication method in the same as the above. It is explanatory drawing of a guard interval. It is explanatory drawing for demonstrating the influence of the delay wave with respect to a desired wave (direct wave).

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 PN code generation part 2 BPSK modulation part 3 PN code generation part 4 BPSK modulation part 5 EVM evaluation part

Claims (5)

A synchronization block for establishing synchronization, a control block storing control information, a data block for data transmission, and an information bit string stored in each block are modulated into complex symbols by a predetermined digital modulation method Used for a modulation method or a communication method for transmitting a packet, restoring the complex symbol from the transmitted signal, and digitally demodulating the complex symbol to generate the information bit example,
Evaluation information consisting of a predetermined bit string that is known on both the transmission side and the reception side is stored in any block of the packet and transmitted, and an error vector of a complex symbol restored on the reception side with respect to the evaluation information In the error vector evaluation method for evaluating
An error vector evaluation method characterized in that the evaluation information is stored in a plurality of blocks constituting a packet, and the evaluation information stored in each block is formed by a code that changes pseudo-randomly for each block.   2. The error vector evaluation method according to claim 1, wherein the evaluation information is formed by a pseudo-random code generated by a PN sequence.   When a packet is transmitted by a multicarrier modulation signal, the error vector is evaluated for each subcarrier after correcting the phase of other subcarriers using signals of at least two subcarriers corresponding to the block of evaluation information. 3. The error vector evaluation method according to claim 1, wherein the error vector is evaluated.   The adaptive subcarrier modulation method for transmitting using subcarriers adaptively selected according to transmission characteristics for each of a plurality of subcarriers, wherein the error vector evaluation method according to any one of claims 1 to 3 An adaptive subcarrier modulation method, wherein a subcarrier is selected based on the error vector evaluated in (1).   4. The frequency division communication method according to claim 1, wherein the error vector is divided into a plurality of regions to which one to a plurality of subcarriers belong, and the same information is transmitted on the subcarriers in each region. A frequency division communication method comprising: selecting and receiving any subcarrier in a plurality of regions based on an error vector evaluated by an evaluation method.

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