A novel and useful acknowledgement and adaptive frequency hopping mechanism for use in wireless communication systems such as IO-Link Wireless. One or two additional acknowledgement bits are added to packet transmissions. One is a current acknowledgment bit which indicates whether a packet was successfully received anytime during the current cycle. The second bit is a previous acknowledgment bit which indicates whether packets were received successfully anytime during the previous cycle. An adaptive hopping table is constructed using a greedy algorithm which chooses frequencies with the best PER for transmission of higher priority packets, while equalizing the PER products across cycles. A last resort frequency mechanism further improves transmission success by switching to a better performing channel for the last subcycle when previous attempts to transmit a high priority packet have failed.

An apparatus comprising a transmit path, a plurality of local oscillators and a control unit. The control unit may be configured to: receive an upcoming resource block (RB) allocation; determine whether the upcoming RB allocation is the same as the current RB allocation; in response to determining that the upcoming RB allocation is different than the current RB allocation: select an unused LO of the plurality of LOs; determine whether a number of allocated RBs associated with the upcoming RB allocation is greater than a threshold; and in response to determining that the number of allocated RBs associated with the upcoming RB allocation is not greater than the threshold, tune the selected LO to a frequency corresponding to the upcoming RB allocation.

Methods and apparatus for providing quasi-licensed spectrum access within a prescribed area or venue, including to users or subscribers of one or more Mobile Network Operators (MNOs). In one embodiment, the quasi-licensed spectrum utilizes 3.5 GHz CBRS (Citizens Broadband Radio Service) spectrum allocated by a Federal or commercial SAS (Spectrum Access System) to a managed content delivery network that includes one or more wireless access nodes (e.g., CBSDs) in data communication with a controller, and the core(s) of the MNO network(s). In one variant, the controller dynamically allocates (i) spectrum within the area or venue within CBRS bands, and (ii) MNO roaming users or subscribers to CBRS bands (e.g., via extant LTE-TD technology). In one particular implementation, the managed network comprises a Multiple Systems Operator (MSO) network such as a cable or satellite network, and the MSO and MNO coordinate to implement user-specific and/or data-specific policies for the roaming MNO subscribers.

An apparatus and method for hopping across frequencies in a transmission medium. A communication link is established between multiple devices over a communication medium using a default frequency resource. Signaling information is detected for frequency resources available on the communication medium, and values associated with the signaling information are stored within a logging table. The communication link is monitored for errors and a new frequency resource is selected from the logging table to maintain the communication link, if the errors exceed a predetermined threshold.

A radio frequency signal generation device may include an optical comb generator configured to generate an optical comb signal including a plurality of first wavelength signals having different wavelengths; a pulse shaper configured to attenuate remaining wavelength signals excluding a plurality of second wavelength signals among the plurality of first wavelength signals; an optical-electronic converter configured to generate a radio frequency signal including a carrier frequency signal from the plurality of second wavelength signals outputted from the pulse shaper; and a pulse shaping controller configured to control the pulse shaper such that a carrier frequency of the carrier frequency signal varies according to a frequency hopping pattern.

A user terminal is disclosed including a receiver that receives a downlink signal that is transmitted in repetitions in narrow bands to which frequency hopping is applied, and a processor that specifies a pattern of the applied frequency hopping based on a starting index that indicates a first narrow band in the narrow bands and a frequency offset that is a shift in a frequency direction from the first narrow band. The processor causes the receiver to receive the downlink signal using the specified pattern. Each of the narrow bands is a part of a system band. The user terminal communicates using the narrow bands only. The downlink signal starts being allocated to the first narrow band.

A method of sharing a spectrum by frequency hopping includes receiving frequency usage information for a shared spectrum of a first communication system, setting a weight for determining a ratio of channels to be used for communication by frequency hopping of a second communication system from among first channels of the second communication system corresponding to an unused spectrum in the shared spectrum and second channels of the second communication system corresponding to a used spectrum in the shared spectrum, based on the received frequency usage information, and selecting a frequency hopping channel from among the first channels and the second channels based on the set weight.

Methods and apparatus for providing quasi-licensed spectrum access within a prescribed area or venue, including to users or subscribers of one or more Mobile Network Operators (MNOs). In one embodiment, the quasi-licensed spectrum utilizes 3.5 GHz CBRS (Citizens Broadband Radio Service) spectrum allocated by a Federal or commercial SAS (Spectrum Access System) to a managed content delivery network that includes one or more wireless access nodes (e.g., CBSDs) in data communication with a controller, and the core(s) of the MNO network(s). In one variant, the controller dynamically allocates (i) spectrum within the area or venue within CBRS bands, and (ii) MNO roaming users or subscribers to CBRS bands (e.g., via extant LTE-TD technology). In one particular implementation, the managed network comprises a Multiple Systems Operator (MSO) network such as a cable or satellite network, and the MSO and MNO coordinate to implement user-specific and/or data-specific policies for the roaming MNO subscribers.

Techniques and apparatuses described herein facilitate narrowband communication within the unlicensed frequency spectrum by simultaneously transmitting (e.g., in adjacent channels) a plurality of anchor channels. For example, a base station may simultaneously transmit at least three anchor channels of 180 kHz each so that the 500 kHz minimum bandwidth requirement is satisfied. Furthermore, the techniques and apparatuses described herein provide discovery reference signal (DRS) structures to cause the different types of DRS to be repeated and/or transmitted on different anchor channels, which improves frequency diversity. Also, a synchronization signal of the anchor channels may be used to indicate a configuration of the anchor channels. Thus, synchronization in the NB-IoT-unlicensed (NB-IoT-u) spectrum is enabled, and efficiency is improved over synchronization using a single anchor channel.

In an aspect of the disclosure, a method, a computer-readable medium, and an apparatus are provided. In one example, the apparatus may be a base station. In certain configurations, the apparatus may transmit information indicating a narrowband frequency hopping pattern to at least one UE. In certain aspects, the narrowband frequency hopping pattern may correspond to a plurality of frames. In certain other aspects, the plurality of frames may include at least one non-anchor channel and being associated with a plurality of anchor channels. The apparatus may communicate with the at least one UE using the narrowband frequency hopping pattern. In certain aspects, communication on the plurality of anchor channels may occur during the same frames.