Channel Monitoring for Improved Parameter Selection in a Communication System

Abstract

A method is provided for automatically improving throughput of an active channel in a communication system comprising: receiving input from one or more modules that identify and characterize impairments in the active channel; monitoring the input to track changes in the impairments; and changing channel parameters to improve throughput on the channel based on the changes in the impairments. Other systems and methods are disclosed.

Description

[0001] This application claims priority under 35 USC § 119(e)(1) of Provisional Application Ser. No. 60 / 360,494 filed Feb. 28, 2002. Additional coassigned patent applications also claim priority from this Provisional Application.FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0002] This invention generally relates to communication systems, and more specifically to systems and methods for improving parameter selection. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0003] The goal of modern communication systems is to provide their operator the best of all worlds. In severe channel conditions it is desirable to provide sophisticated coding schemes and robust transmission at the expense of achieved capacity. In moderate channels conditions it is desirable to provide maximal throughput at the expense of robustness to channel impairments. As a result, the need to provide operators the option to address such a diverse set of channels led many contemporary common standards to include a wide variety of transmission parameters. [000...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The present invention provides methods and systems for automatically improving throughput of an active channel in a communication system. The methods involve receiving input from modules that identify and characterize impairments in the channel, monitoring the input to track changes in the impairments, and changing channel parameters to improve throughput on the channel based on the changes in the impairments. The methods may also include automatically estimating channel throughput if a different order constellation is used, analyzing impairments to generate statistics on occurrences of impairments, choosing a new constellation size, and estimating channel throughput for the new constellation size based on the statistics on occurrences of impairments. The methods may be utilized in various transmission scenarios and may be applied to receivers, front-ends, transmitters, transceivers, and other elements of the communication system.

Problems solved by technology

However, the many tools in DOCSIS 2.0 make the selection of transmission parameters extremely difficult in comparison to DOCSIS 1.0, with the performance of DOCSIS 2.0 systems greatly depending on the choice of these parameters.

However, in current systems, operators tend to choose overly robust transmission parameters just to be on the safe side.

This results in an inefficient use of bandwidth, and a substantial decrease in capacity.

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