WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEM AND SIGNAL PROCESSING METHOD THEREOF

Abstract

A wireless communication system includes a channel estimation circuit, a shortening circuit, a time-domain decision feedback equalizer and a coefficient calculation circuit. The channel estimation circuit generates an estimated channel pulse response according to a received signal. The shortening circuit defines a shortened impulse response from the estimated channel impulse response according to a main energy distribution region of the estimated channel impulse response. The time-domain decision feedback equalizer performs time-domain equalization on the received signal, and includes a feedforward filter for filtering the received signal. The coefficient calculation circuit calculates, according to the shortened impulse response, a set of feed-forward filter coefficients to be utilized by the feedforward filter.

Claims

A wireless communication system, comprising: a channel estimation circuit, generating an estimated channel impulse response according to a received signal a shortening circuit, defining a main energy distribution region of the estimated channel impulse response, and defining a shortened impulse response from the estimated channel impulse response according to the main energy distribution region; a time-domain decision feedback equalizer, performing time-domain equalization on the received signal, comprising a feedforward filter for filtering the received signal; and a coefficient calculation circuit, calculating, according to the shortened impulse response, a set of feedforward filter coefficients to be utilized by the feedforward filter.

2. The wireless communication system according to claim 1, wherein the coefficient calculation circuit is adaptively configured instead of performing calculation according to the shortened impulse response having a predetermined channel length; the wireless communication system further comprising: a configuration controller, coupled between the shortening circuit and the coefficient calculation circuit, configuring the coefficient calculation circuit according to a channel length corresponding to the shortened impulse response.

3. The wireless communication system according to claim 1, wherein the time-domain feedback equalizer comprises a feedback filter, and the coefficient calculation circuit calculates, according to the estimated channel impulse response, a set of feedback filter coefficients for the feedback filter.

4. The wireless communication system according to claim 1, wherein the time-domain decision feedback equalizer comprises a feedback filter, and the coefficient calculation circuit further calculates, according to the shortened impulse response, a set of feedback filter coefficients for the feedback filter.

5. The wireless communication system according to claim 4, wherein the shortening circuit further defines, from the estimated impulse channel response, a secondary energy distribution region different from the main energy distribution region, and defines a secondary impulse response according to the secondary energy distribution region; the coefficient calculation circuit calculates the set of feedback filter coefficients according to both the shortened impulse response and the secondary impulse response.

6. A signal processing method for a wireless communication system, comprising: a) generating an estimated channel impulse response according to a received signal; b) defining a main energy distribution region of the estimated channel impulse response, and defining a shortened impulse response from the estimated channel impulse response according to the main energy distribution region; c) calculating a set of feedforward filter coefficients according to the shortened impulse response; and d) performing time-domain decision feedback equalization, comprising performing a feedforward filtering process, applying the set of feedforward filter coefficients, on the received signal.

7. The signal processing method according to claim 6, wherein performing the time-domain decision feedback equalization further comprises performing a feedback filter process; the signal processing method further comprising: e) calculating, according to the estimated channel impulse response, a set of feedback filter coefficients for the feedback filter process.

8. The signal processing method according to claim 6, wherein time-domain decision feedback equalization further comprises performing a feedback filter process; the signal processing method further comprising: e) calculating, according to the shortened impulse response, a set of feedback filter coefficients for the feedback filter process.

9. The signal processing method according to claim 8, wherein time-domain decision feedback equalization further comprises performing a feedback filter process; the signal processing method further comprising: defining a secondary impulse response from the estimated channel impulse response according to a secondary energy distribution region of the estimated channel impulse response; and calculating the set of feedback filter coefficients according to the shortened impulse response and the secondary impulse response.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0026] FIG. 1 (prior art) is a schematic diagram of a wireless receiver including a time-domain decision feedback equalizer;

[0027] FIG. 2 (prior art) is a signal model corresponding to a time-domain decision feedback equalizer;

[0028] FIG. 3 is a function block diagram of a wireless communication system according to an embodiment of the present invention;

[0029] FIG. 4(A) is an example of an estimated channel impulse response;

[0030] FIG. 4(B) is a detailed implementation example of a shortening circuit according to an embodiment of the present invention;

[0031] FIG. 4(C) illustrates how to define a main energy distribution region of an estimated channel impulse response according to energy peaks;

[0032] FIG. 5 is a wireless communication system further including a configuration controller according to an embodiment of the present invention;

[0033] FIG. 6(A) is another example of an estimated channel impulse response;

[0034] FIG. 6(B) is another detailed implementation example of a shortening circuit according to an embodiment of the present invention; and

[0035] FIG. 7 is a flowchart of a signal processing method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[0036] It should be noted that, the drawings of the present invention include functional block diagrams of multiple functional modules related to one another. These drawings are not detailed circuit diagrams, and connection lines therein are for indicating signal flows only. The interactions between the functional elements/or processes are not necessarily achieved through direct electrical connections. Further, functions of the individual elements are not necessarily distributed as depicted in the drawings, and separate blocks are not necessarily implemented by separate electronic elements.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0037] FIG. 3 shows a function block diagram of a wireless communication system 300 according to an embodiment of the present invention. The wireless communication system 300 includes a channel estimation circuit 310, a coefficient calculation circuit 320, a time-domain decision feedback equalizer 330, a decoding circuit 340, and a shortening circuit 350, with associated details given below.

[0038] The channel estimation circuit 310 generates an estimated channel impulse response h according to a received signal entering the wireless communication system 300. The time-domain decision feedback equalizer 300 performs time-domain equalization on the received signal, and includes a feedforward filter 330A, an adder 330B, a feedback filter 330C and a slicer 330D. An equalized signal outputted by the time-domain decision feedback equalizer 330 is transmitted to the decoding circuit 340 for decoding to generate a decoded bitstream.

[0039] The coefficient calculation circuit 320 calculates a set of feedforward filter coefficients f and a set of feedback filter coefficients b for the feedforward filter 330A and the feedback filter 330C, respectively. Different from the circuit structure of the wireless communication system 100, the shortening circuit 350 is coupled between the channel estimation circuit 310 and the coefficient calculation circuit 320. The shortening circuit 350 defines a main energy distribution region E.sub.M for the estimated channel impulse response h, and accordingly slices a part from the estimated channel impulse response h as a shortened impulse response h.sub.s . FIG. 4(A) shows an example of an estimated channel impulse response h. In FIG. 4(A), the vertical axis represents energy, the horizontal axis represents time, and time length N of the estimated channel impulse response h is a predetermined value determined by the channel estimation circuit 310. As shown in FIG. 4(A), the energy of the estimated channel impulse response h is not evenly distributed, energy peak values usually occur at some time points, while energy values at other time points are noticeably lower than those energy peaks. The shortening circuit 350 selects, from a time range 0 to N, a segment covering most of the energy in the estimated channel impulse response h, wherein the selected segment serves as the main energy distribution region E.sub.M. There are many approaches for determining the main energy distribution region EM that can be applied to the shortening circuit 350. Several embodiments are described below.

[0040] In one embodiment, the shortening circuit 350 defines the main energy distribution region E.sub.M according to positions of the energy peaks. FIG. 4(B) shows a function block diagram of the shortening circuit 350. A buffer memory 350A stores the estimated channel impulse response h generated by the channel estimation circuit 310. For example, the buffer memory 350A can uses multiple registers to store energy values corresponding different time points in the estimated channel impulse response h. The present invention is not limited any particular storage mechanism. The buffer memory 350A may be a volatile or non-volatile memory, e.g., DRAM or flash. A peak energy searching circuit 350B identifies an energy peak greater than a predetermined threshold P.sub.TH from the estimated channel impulse response h. Taking the example shown in FIG. 4(C) for instance, the energy peak searching circuit 350B identifies four energy peaks P1 to P4 in total. The energy distribution region determining circuit 350C defines the main energy distribution region EM according to the energy peaks P1 to P4. For example, the energy distribution region determining circuit 350C can define a lower range limit N.sub.L of the main energy distribution region E.sub.M from the energy peak P1 to the left by a predetermined time length, and define an upper range limit N.sub.U from the energy peak P4 to the right by a predetermined time length (with actual values determined by a circuit designer based on experience). The energy distribution region determining circuit 350C then retrieves a part of the estimated channel impulse response h corresponding to the main energy distribution region E.sub.M (i.e., the time range N.sub.L to N.sub.U) from the buffer memory 350A, wherein the retrieved part serves as the shortened impulse response h.sub.s (i.e., values outside the main energy distribution region E.sub.M of the estimated channel impulse response h are not considered). In this embodiment, the shortening circuit 350 does not define in advance the length of the main energy distribution region E.sub.M.

[0041] In another embodiment, the shortening circuit 350 first calculates total energy of the estimated channel impulse response h, and searches for a continuous time range covering 80% of the total energy from the estimated channel impulse response h to serve as the main energy distribution region E.sub.M. In this embodiment, the shortening circuit 350 does not define in advance the length of the main energy distribution region E.sub.M, either.

[0042] It is seen from FIG. 3 that, the coefficient calculation circuit 320 calculates the feedforward filter coefficient f according to the matrix (to be denoted as H.sub.S) formed by the shortened impulse response h.sub.s (instead of the estimated channel impulse response h generated by the channel estimation circuit 310) generated by the shortening circuit 350. As previously described, whether a Wiener filter or zero forcing mathematical model is used, when the coefficient calculation circuit 320 calculates the feedforward filter coefficient f, the complexity of the calculation process is positively correlated with the length of the estimated channel impulse response h. Apparently, compared to adopting the matrix H formed by the estimated channel impulse response h, the calculation complexity in the coefficient calculation circuit 320 is effectively reduced when the matrix H.sub.S generated by the shortened impulse response h.sub.s is adopted for calculating the feedforward coefficient f. By selecting an appropriate main energy distribution region E.sub.M, most part of energy of the estimated channel impulse response h is covered therein, and so the feedforward filter coefficient f calculated according to the matrix H.sub.S by the coefficient calculation circuit 320 does not differ much from the ideal value. Further, the effect caused by the difference can be later mitigated by iteration correction of the time-domain decision feedback equalizer 330.

[0043] In one embodiment, as shown in FIG. 5, the wireless communication system 300 further includes a configuration controller 360 between the shortening circuit 350 and the coefficient calculation circuit 320. The coefficient calculation circuit 320 can be adaptively configured by the controller 360, rather than performing calculation only based on the shortened impulse response h.sub.s with predetermined channel length. In this structure, the shortening circuit 350 is capable of determining the length of the main energy distribution region. After the shortening circuit 350 generates the shortened impulse response h.sub.s, the configuration controller 360 configures the coefficient calculation circuit 320 according to a channel length of the shortened impulse response h.sub.s.

[0044] In one embodiment, in addition to the feedforward filter coefficient f, the coefficient calculation circuit 320 further generates the feedback filter coefficient b according to the matrix H.sub.S corresponding to the shortened impulse response h.sub.s. In such situation, because both of the feedforward coefficient f and the matrix H.sub.S have been simplified, calculation complexity that the coefficient calculation circuit 320 performs to calculate the feedback filter coefficient b can be significantly lowered.

[0045] In another embodiment, the coefficient calculation circuit 320 uses the matrix H.sub.S only for calculating the feedforward filter coefficient f, while uses the matrix H formed by the estimated channel impulse response h to calculate and generate the feedback filter coefficient b. One benefit of the above approach is that, for the feedback filter coefficient b, non-idealness resulted by the shortened impulse response can be reduced. Further, as seen from equation (10) and equation (11), unlike the complicated inverse matrix calculation for generating the feedforward filter coefficient f, the linear calculation for generating the feedback filter coefficient b is much more simple. Thus, even if the matrix H formed by the estimated channel impulse response h is used for generating the feedback filter coefficient b, the coefficient calculation circuit 320 will not process huge amount of calculation.

[0046] Refer to FIG. 6(A) and FIG. 6(B). In one embodiment, the energy peak searching circuit 350B further refers to another predetermined threshold P.sub.TH2 to identify energy peaks between the two predetermined thresholds P.sub.TH and P.sub.TH2 from the estimated channel impulse response h. Taking the estimated channel impulse response h in FIG. 6(A) for example, the energy peak searching circuit 350B further identifies an energy peak P5, according to which the energy distribution region determining circuit 350C defines a secondary energy distribution region E.sub.M2 that does not overlap the main energy distribution region E.sub.M. The secondary energy distribution region E.sub.M2 is regarded as a less important energy concentrated area. For example, the energy distribution region determining circuit 350C can set a lower range limit N.sub.L2 of the time axis of the secondary energy distribution region E.sub.M2 from the energy peak P5 to the left by a predetermined time length, and set an upper range limit N.sub.U2 of the time axis from the energy peak P5 to the right by a the predetermined time length. The energy distribution region determining circuit 350C then retrieves the part of the estimated channel impulse response h corresponding to the secondary energy distribution region E.sub.M2 (between the time range N.sub.L2 and N.sub.U2) from the buffer memory 350A, and the retrieved part is utilized as a secondary impulse response h.sub.s2.

[0047] In this embodiment, the shortening circuit 350 provides both of the shortened impulse response h.sub.s and the secondary impulse response h.sub.s2 to the coefficient calculation circuit 320. As previously described, the coefficient calculation circuit 320 performs linearly calculation when generating the feedback filter coefficient b according to equation (10) or equation (11). Thus, the coefficient calculation circuit 320 can calculate two sets of feedback filter coefficients respectively according to the shortened impulse response h.sub.s and the secondary impulse response h.sub.s2, and then superimpose the two sets of feedback filter coefficients to provide a result as the feedback filter coefficient b. Compared to a situation where the feedback filter coefficient b is generated only according to the shortened impulse response h.sub.s , by having the coefficient calculation circuit 320 further take into account the secondary impulse response h.sub.s2, the feedback filter coefficient b can be more ideal without incurring too much calculation loading.

[0048] For one person skilled in the art, it can be appreciated that, similar to the main energy distribution region E.sub.M, the shortening circuit 350 is not limited to defining the secondary energy distribution region E.sub.M2 according to positions of the energy peaks. For example, the shortening circuit 350 can calculate the remaining energy of the estimated channel impulse response h outside the main energy distribution region E.sub.M so as to determine a continuous time range that covers 80% of the remaining energy but does not overlap the main energy distribution region E.sub.M from the estimated channel impulse response h by using an integrator, and utilize this continuous time range as the secondary energy distribution region E.sub.M2.

[0049] In practice, the shortening circuit 350 may be implemented by various control and processing platforms, including fixed and programmable logic circuits, e.g., a programmable logic gate array, an application-specific integrated circuit, a microcontroller, a microprocessor and a digital signal processor. Further, these two circuits may also be designed to complete respective tasks through executing a processor command stored in a memory. One person skilled in the art can understand that there are many circuit configurations and devices that can achieve the concept of the present invention without departing from the spirit of the present invention.

[0050] It should be noted that, the feedforward filter coefficient f and the feedback filter coefficient b generated by the coefficient calculation circuit 320 are not limited to being used as initial values of filter coefficients of the time-domain decision feedback equalizer 330. After the time-domain decision feedback equalizer 330 starts operating stably, the channel estimation circuit 310 can periodically generate a new estimated channel impulse response h, the shortening circuit 350 is controlled to periodically generate a shortened impulse response h.sub.s, and the coefficient calculation circuit 320 is caused to generate a new feedforward filter coefficient f and a new feedback filter coefficient b for the time-domain decision feedback equalizer 330.

[0051] FIG. 7 shows a flowchart of a signal processing method applied to a wireless communication system according to another embodiment of the present invention. In step S71, an estimated channel impulse response is generated according to a received signal. In step S72, according to a main energy distribution region of the estimated channel impulse response, a shortened impulse response is defined from the estimated channel impulse response. In step S73, a set of feedforward filter coefficients are calculated according to the shortened impulse response. In step S74, time-domain decision feedback equalization is performed on the received signal, wherein the time-domain decision feedback equalization includes a feedforward filter process performed on the received signal by utilizing the set of feedforward filter coefficients.

[0052] One person skilled in the art can understand that, the operation variations in the description associated with the wireless communication system 300 are applicable to the signal processing method in FIG. 7, and such repeated details are omitted herein.

[0053] While the invention has been described by way of example and in terms of the preferred embodiments, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited thereto. On the contrary, it is intended to cover various modifications and similar arrangements and procedures, and the scope of the appended claims therefore should be accorded the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all such modifications and similar arrangements and procedures. It should be noted that, the mathematical expressions in the disclosure are for illustrating principles and logics associated with the embodiments of the present invention. Unless otherwise specified, these mathematical expressions do not levy limitations to the present invention. One person skilled in the art can understand that, there are various other technologies capable of realizing the physical forms corresponding to these mathematical expressions.