MXPA05008891A - Methods and apparatus of enhanced coding in multi-user communications systems - Google Patents

Abstract

First and second sets of information are transmitted using a relatively large transmission block including a plurality of minimum transmission units (MTUs), each MTU corresponds to a unique combination of resources. A first set of said MTUs is used in conveying said first set of information, said first set including at least a majority of said MTUs in the transmission block. A second set of said MTUs is defined, e.g., selected, for use in conveying said second set of information, said second set of MTUs including less MTUs than first set and at least some MTUs included in the first set. The first and second sets of information are communicated by transmitting at least some MTUs included in said first and second sets of MTUs with the corresponding information modulated thereon. The communicating of the information may be through superposition of the first and second information on shared MTUs.

Description

METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR ENHANCED ENCODING IN MULTIPLE USER COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS Field of the Invention The present invention is directed to improved methods for encoding and transmitting information in a wireless communication system.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The overlay coding in multi-user communication systems will be described. Multiple user communication systems comprise several transmitters and receivers that communicate with each other and can use one or more communication methods. In general, multiple user communication methods can be categorized into one of two scenarios: (a) A single transmitter that communicates with various receivers, commonly referred to as a broadcast communication method, and (b) Several transmitters that are communicate with a single common receiver, which is commonly referred to as a multiple access communication method. The broadcast communication method is commonly known in the theoretical communications and information literature as the "broadcast channel" and will be referred to as such during the remainder of this document. The "broadcast channel" refers to the physical communication channels between the transmitter and the multiple receivers, as well as the communication resources used by the transmitter to communicate. Similarly, the multiple access communication method is widely known as the "multiple access channel" and in the rest of this document this terminology will be used. Again, the term "multiple access channel" refers to physical communication channels between the multiple transmitters and the common receiver, together with the communication resources used by the transmitters. The broadcast communication method is frequently used to implement the downlink communication channel in a typical cellular wireless system, wherein the base station broadcasts a plurality of wireless terminals, while the uplink channel in said system is commonly implemented, using a multiple access communication method, wherein a plurality of wireless terminals can transmit signaling to a base station. The transmission resource in the multiple user communication system can be represented generally in time, frequency and code space. The information theory suggests that the capacity of the L system can be increased in both scenarios, in particular by transmitting multiple receivers simultaneously in the case of the emission communication method, or by allowing multiple transmitters to transmit simultaneously in the case of the method of multiple access communication, through the same transmission resource, for example, through the same frequencies at the same time. In the case of the emission communication method, the technique used to simultaneously transmit multiple users through the same transmission resource is also known as "overlap encoding". Within the context of the present invention, controlled overlay coding is shown as a valuable practical technique in both broadcast and multiple access communication methods. The advantages of the overlap encoding can be appreciated from the following description of transmission techniques of the broadcast communication method. It is considered that a single transmitter communicates with two receivers, whose channels can be described by the environmental Gaussian noise levels of Ni and 7V2, with Ni < N2, for example, the first receiver operates through a channel stronger than the second receiver. It is assumed that the communication resources available to the transmitter have a total bandwidth of W, and a total power of P. The transmitter can employ several strategies to communicate with the receivers. Figure 1 includes a graph 100 that plots the ranges that can be achieved in a transmission channel, for a first user, for a stronger receiver and a second receiver, with a weaker receiver, under three different transmission strategies. The vertical axis 102 of FIG. 1 represents the range of the strongest receiver, while the horizontal axis 104 represents the range of the weakest receiver. First, one must consider the strategy where the transmitter multiplexes between the two receivers at the same time, allocating all its resources to one receiver at the same time. If the fraction of the time that elapses in the communication with the first receiver (stronger) is denoted by a, it is easy to show that the ranges that can be achieved for the two users, satisfy: R1 = aWlog (l + ~), R2 = (l-) W \ ogQ. + -) As the fraction of time elapsed to serve the first user varies, the ranges achieved by the above equations are represented by the straight line 106 of Figure 1, which represents the Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) strategy. Now we consider a different transmission strategy where the transmitter assigns a certain fraction of the bandwidth, ß, and a fraction of the available power,?, To the first user. The second user has the remaining fractions of bandwidth and power. Having assigned these functions, the transmitter communicates with the two receivers simultaneously. Under this transmission strategy, the range region can be characterized by the following equations: P RI < ^ log (l + -), ^ t (Í - U.JJT 7? 2 < (l - /) Flog (l + •) • Ranges achieved through the above equations are displayed intuitively from the segmented convex curve line 108 of Figure 1, which represents the strategy of frequency division multiplexing (FDM) It is evident that the strategy of dividing the power and bandwidth available between the two users in an appropriate way, leads to However, the second strategy is still not the optimal one, the supreme one of the regions of rank that can be achieved under all the transmission strategies is the region of emission capacity. Gaussian case, this region is characterized by the equations:? P R1 < log (l + -), and is indicated by dotted curve line 110 of FIG. 1, which represents capacity. Thomas Cover in T.M. Cover, Broadcast Channels, IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, IT-18 (1): 2 14, 1972, showed that a communication technique called superposition coding, could reach this region of capacity. In this technique, signals for different users are transmitted with different powers in the same transmission resource and overlap each other. The gains that can be achieved through overlapping coding, surpasses any other communication technique that requires the division of the transmission resource between different users. The basic concept of superposition coding is illustrated in the graph 200 of Figure 2. The graph 200 includes a vertical axis 202 representing a quadrature and a horizontal axis 204 representing in-phase. Although this example assumes QPSK modulation, the choice of modulation settings is not restrictive in a general sense. Likewise, this example is a review of two users with the concept that is generalized in a simple way for multiple users. It is assumed that the transmitter has a total budget of transmission power P. It is assumed that the first receiver, referred to as a "weaker receiver", seeks a longer channel noise and the second receiver, referred to as "stronger receiver" , look for smaller channel noises. The four circles with black found in the pattern 205 represent the constellation points QPSK that will be transmitted at a high power (best protected), (lo;) P, to the weakest receiver, where the arrow 206 provides a measure of the high power QPSK transmission force. Meanwhile, the additional information is brought to the strongest receiver at a low (less protected) power, P, also using a QPSK constellation, where the arrow 207 provides a measure of the low power QPSK transmission force. The really transmitted symbols, which combine both the low power and high power signals, are represented as the blank circles 208 in Figure 2. A key concept this illustration informs is that the transmitter communicates with both users in simultaneously using the same transmission resource. In this document, the high power signal is also called a protected signal, and the low power signal is also referred to as a regular signal. The strategy of the receiver is very simple. The weakest receiver of the high power QPSK constellation with a high power signal superimposed on it. The Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) experienced by the weakest receiver may be insufficient to resolve the low power signal, so that the low power signal appears as noise and slightly degrades the SNR when the weaker receiver decodes the signal high power. On the other hand, the SNR experienced by the strongest receiver is sufficient to solve the QPSK constellation points of both high power and low power. The strongest receiver strategy is to first decode the high power points (which are projected for the weakest receiver) to eliminate their contribution from the composite signal and then decode the low power signal. However, in practice, this strategy usually does not work well. Any imperfection in the cancellation of the high power signal manifests itself as noise for the decoder that recovers the low power signal. In light of the foregoing description, it is clear that there is a need for novel methods and apparatuses that allow communication systems to operate in a broadcast and / or multiple access communication method using a controlled overlap encoding to take the advantage of the benefits of the highest ranges that can be obtained in the channel, also overcoming the practical difficulties encountered with the imperfect cancellation of the high power signal and the complexity and cost associated with the junction decoder method.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention is directed to transmission and reception techniques for coding, which allow to decode the regular signal without being compromised by the imperfect cancellation of the protected signal. An exemplary embodiment of the present invention is described below, within the context of a cellular wireless data communication system utilizing Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM). Although an exemplary wireless system is used for the purposes of explaining the present invention, the present invention is not limited to the exemplary embodiment and can apply to many other communication systems, for example, systems that use the Multiple Access Division of Code (CDMA). According to various embodiments of the present invention, the first and second information groups are transmitted using a transmission block, the transmission block including a plurality of minimum transmission units, each minimum transmission unit corresponding to a unique resource combination. , including resources at least two of either the time, frequency, phase and dispersion code. A minimum transmission unit is also called a degree of freedom. In this document, the minimum transmission unit terms and the degree of freedom are used interchangeably. The transmission block may be relatively large when compared to the minimum size transmission block, which may be required to encode one of the information groups to be transmitted. An exemplary embodiment of the present invention includes defining a first group of minimum transmission units for use in transporting said group of information, the first group of minimum transmission units including at least a majority of the minimum transmission units in the transmission block, defining a second group of minimum transmission units to be used in the transport of the second group of information, including the second group of minimum transmission units less minimum transmission units than the first group; at least some of the minimum transmission units in the first and second groups of minimum transmission units are the same; and the communication of the first and second information groups using the minimum transmission units are included in the first and second groups of minimum transmission units. A first group of said minimum transmission units included in the transmission block, are used to transport the first group of information, the first group including at least a majority of the minimum transmission units in the transmission block. A second group of minimum transmission units, for example selected, is defined to be used in the transport of the second group of information, including the second group of minimum transmission units minus minimum transmission units as the first group; at least part of the minimum transmission units in the first and second groups of minimum transmission units are the same. The first and second groups of information are communicated through the transmission of at least some minimum transmission units included in the first and second groups of minimum transmission units, with the corresponding information modulated therein. The communication of the information can be through the superposition of the first and second information in shared minimum transmission units or by drilling the first group of information so that the second group of information is transmitted in the minimum transmission units which are common for the first and second groups. The error correction codes can be used to retrieve information lost due to the overlap of the second group of information in the shared transmission units. The information transmitted in the first and second information groups can be, for example, user data information and control including recognition and assignment. The first and second information groups can, and in various modalities are transmitted using the first and second segments of minimum transmission units, by transmission of minimum transmission units that include modulated information corresponding to different information groups of different transmitters. The transmitters can be located in different devices, for example, wireless terminals. In other embodiments, the first and second information groups communicate by transmitting the minimum transmission units used to carry the first and second information groups from a single transmitter, e.g., a transmitter from the base station.

The first group of minimum transmission units includes a majority of the minimum transmission units in the transmission block, although normally a high percentage of the minimum transmission units, for example, in some modes the first group of minimum transmission units includes at least 75% of the total number of transmission units, and in some cases, 100% of the minimum transmission units in that block. The second group of minimum transmission units usually includes less than 50% of the minimum transmission units in a block, and in some cases, relatively fewer minimum transmission units, for example, less than 5 or 10% of the number of units of minimum transmission in the transmission block. In such cases, even if none of the minimum transmission units in the second group of transmission units are retrieved by a receiver attempting to decode the minimum transmission units used to communicate the first group of information, in some embodiments, the information that comes from the first group projected to be transmitted in any of the minimum transmission units included in the second group can be recovered through the use of error correction codes. The actual overlap can be used to communicate information that corresponds to both the first and the second information groups using a common minimum transmission unit for both the first and the second group of minimum transmission units. As an alternative, the information corresponding to the first group of information projected to be transmitted in shared minimum information units may be perforated, for example, not transmitted, where the perforated information is retrieved through the use of error correction codes. . In a particular example embodiment, as part of the communication process of the first and second information groups using at least some minimum transmission units included in the first group of minimum transmission units, they can be transmitted at a first power level , while the minimum transmission units in the second group of minimum transmission units are transmitted at a level with higher power than the first signal in a base per minimum transmission unit. The power level at which the minimum information units in the second group are transmitted, in some implementations, is at least 3dB greater than the power level at which the minimum transmission units corresponding to the first signal are transmitted. The power level of the minimum information units in the first and second groups can sometimes, and are varied, for example, to reflect changes in channel conditions. Various receiver modalities are possible according to the present invention. Two receivers, for example, first and second receivers, can operate independently or in parallel. Once the receiver is used to recover the first group of information and the other receiver is used to retrieve the second group of information from the minimum information units in the transmission block in which they are actually transmitted. In one such modality, the first receiver deals with blocks of minimum information that includes a signal corresponding to the second group of information that includes impulse noise, and for example, discards, ignores, or otherwise minimizes its contribution to the output of the receiver. In said implementation, the second receiver deals with the contribution of the signals corresponding to the first information group for the minimum transmission units received as background noise. Since the signal corresponding to the second group of information is normally transmitted using relatively high power levels, for example, power levels sufficient to have the first receiver that interprets the signals as impulse noise, it is normally relatively easy to recover the second signals even in the case where the signals corresponding to the first group of information appear as background noise. Since the effect of transmitting the second group of information is generally limited to relatively few symbols in the transmission block, the effect of the high-power signals on the signals being used that transmit the first group of information tends to be very localized allowing the recovery of any lost information, in many cases through the use of conventional error correction codes included in the transmitter information. In another embodiment of the present invention, an apparatus also includes two receivers. However, instead of working independently in parallel, the first receiver identifies minimum transmission units that correspond to the second group of information, for example, high power minimum transmission units. Subsequently, the information that indicates which minimum transmission units received correspond to the second group of information for the second receiver is transported. The second receiver discards the minimum transmission units that correspond to the second group of information and then decodes the remaining minimum received transmission units. Since the minimum information number of minimum information units discarded tends to be small, for example, below 5% of the minimum information units received in many cases, the second receiver usually has the ability to recover even the entire first group of information through the use of error correction codes used to protect the information transmitted against errors due to the loss or corruption of minimum transmission units during transmission. In various embodiments, the present invention carries out the benefits of overlapping coding in a multi-user communication system, in that it utilizes a receiver that is simple in design yet robust in terms of operational performance. The present invention describes novel effective superposition coding techniques, both for broadcast channel and for multiple access channel. In the broadcast scenario, for example, a single transmitter sends data to a plurality of receivers. Within the context of the example system, the transmitter is the base station that communicates through the cellular downlink with the wireless receivers, for example, mobile receivers. Mobile users in a cellular system can experience a wide range of SNR conditions due to the variance in path loss as a function of the location within the cell. It is assumed without loss of generality that the base station has two signals that it wishes to communicate simultaneously to two different mobile receivers, experiencing different path loss. The regular signal is projected for a receiver that experiences a higher signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), which is referred to hereinafter as a "stronger" receiver. The second signal, called a "protected" signal, is projected for a "weaker" receiver operating through a lower quality channel with a lower SNR. The categorization of mobile receivers as "stronger" or "weaker" is not static and is a relative definition. If overlap coding is not used, then the air link resources must be divided between the protected signal and the regular signal, which is not optimal. In order to differentiate the new overlay coding method described in the present invention, the existing overlay coding method described in the background section hereinafter will be referred to as "classical overlay coding", until the document is finished. Within the context of the codification of the classical superposition, both the protected signal and the regular signal are transmitted with the same air link resource. For example, it is assumed that the air link resource transmits both the regular and protected codes comprising symbols K, Ai, ..., A ?. It is further assumed that the regular codeword is for transporting the information bits M and the protected codeword is for carrying the information bits N. It is assumed that both the regular and protected codewords use BPSK modulation (shift manipulation). of binary phase). In the classical superposition coding, the regular information bits M are converted to coded bits K through an encoding scheme, such as convolutional coding, and the coded bits K are subsequently mapped to symbols K BPSK B? ..., B ?. In the meantime, the protected information bits N are converted to other K-coded bits through another coding scheme, such as convolutional coding, and the coded K bits are subsequently mapped to K BPSK symbols C? ..., C ?. Finally the K BPSK symbols from the protected information bits and K BPSK symbols from the regular information bits are combined and transmitted using KA air link resource symbols ..., A ?: A? = B? + C ?, ..., AK = BK + CK. In the composite signal, the protected symbols are generally transmitted at higher power per bit, so that weaker receivers have the ability to receive them reliably. The regular symbols are transmitted at a relatively lower power per bit. In this example, and in fact in general, the energy of the regular signal is distributed among all the degrees of freedom in which the protected signal is transmitted. The powers are chosen in the transmitter in such a way that the weakest receiver is usually unique in a position to decode the protected codeword. The regular signal simply appears as noise for this receiver. The stronger receiver, on the other hand, must be in a position to decode both code words. A good decoding strategy that the strongest receiver could use is to try to decode the two code words in a united form. However, this is often too complex for practical receivers. Therefore, the strategy normally employed by the strongest receiver is successive decoding. The strongest receiver first decodes the protected codeword, then subtracts it from the composite received signal, and finally decodes the regular codeword, which is the codeword of interest to the strongest receiver. However, in practice the previous successive decoding and cancellation scheme can not always be achieved in a robust manner. If the SNRs of the strongest and weakest receivers and the ranges that are required to be communicated are such that the regular and superimposed signals are transmitted rigorously to the same power, then the cancellation of the word may be difficult or not necessary. of protected code. There are obstacles to successive decoding in practice, even when the powers transmitted in the two codewords are different. For example, most communication systems experience a degree of self-noise in the receiver. Unlike additive noise, auto-noise is usually correlated with the transmitted signal and has an energy that is proportional to the transmitted power. The channel estimation noise in wireless communication systems is an example of self-noise. Within the context of classical overlay coding, channel estimation noise causes the imperfect cancellation of the protected signal at the strongest receiver. The substantial cancellation error can have substantial energy, especially when compared to the low power superimposed signal. In consecuense, the stronger receiver may not have the ability to correctly decode the regular code word due to the residual cancellation error. From this description, it will be appreciated that although the classical superposition coding distributes the energy of the protected code word through each of the degrees of freedom, it is advisable to concentrate this energy between one or some degrees of freedom. The concentration of energy in the limited number ß "of degrees of freedom, according to the present invention, facilitates easy detection and cancellation of the protected signal in the receiver, even when the general transmission power 5 included in the two signals is In accordance with the present invention, the energy in the code word is concentrated between one or some degrees of freedom.When using the above described coding and transmission methods, multiple information groups can be transmitted using an overlapping set. shared communication resources, for example, time, frequency and / or code .. Numerous additional features and benefits of the present invention will be appreciated, by virtue of the detailed description that follows.

Brief Description of the Figures Figure 1 shows a graph illustrating ranges that can be achieved in one transmission channel for a first user with a stronger receiver and a second user with a weaker receiver under three different transmission strategies. Figure 2 illustrates an example of overlay coding with QPSK modulation.

Figure 3 illustrates an example of pulse position modulation. Figure 4 illustrates an example of intermittent superposition coding, according to the present invention. Figure 5 illustrates another example of intermittent superposition coding, according to the present invention, wherein the intermittent signal concentrates its energy at locations of four symbols. Figure 6 illustrates exemplary intermittent superposition coding in a multiple access channel shown as a composite signal in a base station receiver according to the present invention. Figure 7 illustrates exemplary traffic segments and assignment of traffic segments through a base station to a user. Figure 8 illustrates example allocation segments corresponding to traffic segments. Figure 9 illustrates exemplary downlink traffic segments and recognition segments. Figure 10 illustrates allocation segments, downlink traffic segments and example recognition segments, wherein the allocation and recognition segments each use intermittent overlay coding, according to the present invention. * Figure 11 illustrates two groups of example information, a transmission block of minimum transmission units (MTUs) and groups of minimum transmission units of example, with partial overlap that can be used to define information groups and they may be used in part or totally to transmit signals conveying the information, in accordance with the present invention. Figure 12 illustrates another exemplary transmission block of MTUs illustrating that the transmission block can be subdivided into sub-blocks according to the present invention. Figure 13 illustrates a • method for transmitting two signals corresponding to the two groups of information using different devices with different transmitters, each transmitter generating a signal corresponding to a group of information, according to the present invention. Figure 14 illustrates two other methods of transmission of two groups of information using either a single transmitter that produces two signals, each signal corresponding to information in a group of information, or using a single transmitter which internally combines the signaling to produce a single signal combined in accordance with the present invention.

Figure 15 illustrates two apparatuses, according to the present invention, including filtering and an error correction module; each apparatus includes two receivers, and each apparatus can be used to receive a combined signal and retrieve the two groups of information which have been transmitted. Figure 16 illustrates another apparatus, in accordance with the present invention, that includes an MTU signal identification module; the apparatus includes two receivers, and the apparatus can be used to receive a combined signal and retrieve two groups of information that have been transmitted. Figure 17 illustrates an exemplary communication system that implements the apparatus and methods of the present invention. Figure 18 illustrates an exemplary base station implemented in accordance with the present invention. Figure 19 illustrates an exemplary end node (wireless terminal) implemented in accordance with the present invention.

Detailed Description of the Invention The present invention is directed to transmission and reception techniques for coding, which allow the decoding of the regular signal without being compromised by the imperfect cancellation of the protected signal. Figure 17, illustrates an example communication system 1700 that uses the apparatuses and methods according to the present invention. The example communication system 1700 includes a plurality of base stations including the base station 1 (BS 1) 1702 and the base station N (BS N) 1702 '. The base station BS 1 1702 is coupled to a plurality of end nodes (ENs), EN 1 1708, EN N 1710 through the wireless links 1712, 1714 respectively. In a similar way, the BS base station N 1702 'is coupled to a plurality of end nodes (ENs) IN 1 1708 ', IN N 1710' through wireless links 1712 ', 1714', respectively. The cell 1 1704 represents the wireless coverage area where the base station BS 1 1702 can communicate with ENs, for example EN 1 1708. Cell N 1706 represents the wireless coverage area in which the base station BS N 1702 'can communicate with ENs , for example, EN 1 1708 '. ENs 1708, 1710, 1708 ', and 1710' may be moved through the communication system 1700. The base stations BS 1 1702, BS N 1702 'are coupled to a network node 1706 through the network links 1718, 1720 , respectively. The network node 1716 is coupled to other network nodes, for example, another node of the base station, routers, local agent, Authentication Authorization Accounting (AAA) server nodes, etc., and the network link via Internet 1722. The network links 1718, 1720, 1722 can be, for example, fiber optic cables. The network link 1722 provides an interface outside the communication system 1700, allowing users, for example, ENs, to communicate with the nodes outside the system 1700. Figure 18 illustrates an example base station 1800 according to the present invention. The example base station 1800 may be a more detailed representation of the base stations 1702, 1702 'of FIG. 17. The example base station 1800 includes a plurality of receivers, the receiver 1 1802, the receiver N 1804, a plurality of receivers. transmitters, transmitter 1 1810, transmitter N 1814, processor 1822, for example CPU, I / O interface 1824 and memory 1828 coupled together via a bus 1826. The various elements 1802, 1804, 1810, 1814, 1824, and 1828 can exchange data and information through bus 1826. Receivers 1802, 1804 and receivers 1810, 1814 are coupled to antennas 1806, 1808, and 1818, 1820, respectively, providing a way for base station 1800 to be communicate, for example, exchange data and information, with end nodes, for example, wireless terminals within your area of cellular coverage. Each receiver 1802, 1804 may include a decoder 1803, 1805, respectively, which receive and decode signaling, which had been encoded and transmitted through the end nodes operating within its cell. The receivers 1802, 1804 can be any of, or some variations of the example receivers shown in the apparatuses 5 1502 of Figure 15, the apparatus 6 1532 of Figure 15, or the apparatus 7 1562 of Figure 16, for example the receivers (1506, 1508), (1536, 1542), (1563, 1564). The receivers 1802, 1804 must, in accordance with the present invention, have the capability of receiving a combined signal including, a regulated or underlying signal and an intermittent signal and retrieving groups of information corresponding to the original pre-broadcast information groups. . Each of the transmitters 1810, 1814 may include an encoder 1812, 1816, which encodes the signaling before transmission. The transmitters 1810, 1814 can be any of, or variations of, the example transmitters shown in the apparatus 1 1302 and the apparatus 2 1308 of Figure 13, the apparatus 3 of Figure 14 or the apparatus 4 1410 of Figure 14, for example the transmitters (1304 and 1310), (1404), (1412). The transmitters 1802, 1805 must, in accordance with the present invention, have the ability to transmit one or more of the following: regular or underlying signal, intermittent signal and / or combined signal. Memory 1828 includes routines 1830 and data / information 1832. Processor 1822 controls the operation of base station 1800 by executing routines 1830 and using information / data 1832 in memory 1828 to operate receiver (s) 1802, 1804, transmitters 1810 and the l / O 1824 interface to carry out the processing control the functionality of the basic base station, and to control and implement the same features and improvements of the present invention including the generation and transmission of combined signals, the reception of combined signals, separation of the combined signal into regular or underlying signal information and intermittent signal information, separation and recover of information. The I / O interface 1824 supplies the base station 1800 with an interface for the Internet nodes or other nodes of the network, eg, intermediate network nodes, routers, AAA server nodes, local agent nodes, etc. , thus allowing the end nodes to communicate over the wireless links with the base station 1800 to connect, communicate or exchange data and information with other similar nodes, for example, another end node, through the communication and externally to the communication system, for example, via the Internet. The routines 1830 include communication routines 1834, and control routines of the base station 1836. The control routine of the base station 1836 includes a programmer 1838, an error detection and correction module 1840, a transmitter control routine 1844 and a receiver control routine 1846. The data / information 1832 includes receiver information 1 1850, received information N 1852, transmission information 1 1854, transmission information N 1856, identified MTU information 1858 and user data / information 1848. The user data / information 1848 includes a plurality of user information, user information 1 1860 and user information N 1862. Each user information, for example user information 1 1860, includes identification information of the terminal (ID) 1864, data 1866, quality report information from channel 1868, segment information 1870 and classification information 1872. Transmission information 1854 can include a group of information that can correspond to a first signal, for example, a regular or underlying signal, information that defines the transmission block of the MTUs that can be used to transmit the first signal, information which defines a first group of MTUs that can be used to define the signal, information that can be modulated in the first group of MTUs to define the first signal, information that defines which MTUs correspond to the first signal information that must be transmitted, for example, to a wireless terminal. In some modalities, each of the MTUs carrying a first group of information data will be transmitted. In another modality, most of the MTUs that transport a first group of information must be transmitted. In this embodiment, the MTUs corresponding to the first group of information that also corresponds to a second group of information, for example, an intermittent signal, can be knocked down before transmission. The transmission information N 1856 can include a group of information that can correspond to a second signal, for example, an intermittent signal, information, which defines the transmission block of the MTUs that can be used to transmit the second signal, for example , to a wireless terminal, information defining a second group of MTUs that can be used to define the second signal, information that can be modulated in the second group of MTUs to define the second signal. The first and second transmission blocks can be the same. In such a case, the information of the transmission block that specifies the size and / or shape of the shared transmission block can, and frequently, is stored separately in the memory 1828 from the transmission information 1854, 1856. The information received 1 1850 includes a first group of information retrieved from receiver 1, 1802, for example, information corresponding to a first group of pre-broadcast information of the wireless terminal. The first group of recovered information may have been recovered, for example, of a regular or underlying signal. The information received N 1852 includes a group of information retrieved from the receiver N, 1804, for example, information corresponding to a second group of pre-determined wireless transmission information. The second group of recovered information may have been recovered, for example, from an intermittent signal. The regular and intermittent signal that defines each group of original pre-broadcast information shares some common MTUs. The identified MTU information 1856 may include a group of MTUs identified in the second signal or intermittent signal, the group of MTUs identified may have been obtained through the receiver decoder N 1805. The identified MTU information 1858 may be sent to the receiver 1 1802 , wherein the receiver can exclude the MTUs before passing the received signal to carry out the error correction module, alternatively, the identified MTU information 1858 can be sent to the error detection and correction module 1840 in the memory and / or the error detection and correction module in the decoder 1803. The data 1866 may include data received from the end nodes and data that will be transmitted to the end nodes. In some embodiments, a terminal identifier ID 1864 is used for each of the wireless terminals N which may interact with the base station at a point in time. When entering a cell to a wireless terminal, for example, the end node is assigned to the terminal ID 1864. Therefore, the terminal IDs are again used as input to the wireless terminals and leave a cell. Each base station has a group of terminal identifiers (terminal IDs) 1864 assigned to the users, for example, wireless terminals that are being serviced. The channel quality report information 1868 may include the information determined by the base station 1800 in the user's channel quality and the user's feedback information which includes downlink channel quality reports, interference information, power from the wireless terminals. The segment information 1870 may include information defining the segments assigned to the users in terms of users, in terms of type of use, for example, traffic channel, allocation channel, request channel.; features, for example, MTUs, frequency / phase and time, OFDM tone symbols; type of signals to use the segment, for example, regular or underlying versus intermittent. Classification information 1872 includes information that categorizes the user, e.g., wireless terminal, as a "stronger" or "weaker" transmitter. The communication routines 1834 include various communication applications that can be used to provide particular services, e.g., IP telephony services, text services and / or interactive games, to one or more user end nodes in the system. The control routines of the base station 1836 perform functions that include basic control of the base station and control that relates to the apparatus and method of the present invention. The control routines of the base station 1836 exert control over the generation and reception of the signal, detection and correction of error, sequences for jumping data and pilot signals, the I / O interface 1824, the allocation of segments to the users and the user programming for terminal IDs 1864. More specifically, programmer 1834 schedules users for terminal IDs 1864, allocates segments to users using user classification information 1872 and segment information 1870. The programmer makes decisions to see which users and which segments should be assigned regular or underlying signals and which users or which segments should be assigned intermittent signals, in accordance with the present invention. Certain users, for example, those with high available power, and small amounts of information to transmit may be better suited for intermittent signaling than other users who may wish to transmit large amounts of information and have limited available power. Certain types of channels may be more suitable for using intermittent signaling. For example, in many cellular communication systems, control channels are transmitted in broadcast power since they are restricted by mobile users with the weakest channels. Intermittent signaling is well suited for this application and its use can often result in a power reduction with little or no robustness. By using the 1872 classification information and the 1870 segment information, the 1838 programmer can check users with a low downlink signal to noise (SNR) ratio for regular segments within the channel, while users with a high SNR they can be collated with intermittent segments, for example, "protected" segments within the channel. The transmitter control module 1844 uses data / information 1832 which includes transmission information 1 1854, transmission information N 1856, terminal ID 1864, data 1866, and segment information 1870 to generate the transmission signals and control the operation of the transmitters 1810, 1814 in accordance with the present invention. For example, the control module of the transmitter 1844 can control the transmitter 1810 to encode through its encoder 1812 information groups included in the transmission information 1 1854 in the signal, eg, regular or underlying signal, wherein the Transmitter 1 1810 can transmit. The transmission control module 1844 can encode the information groups included in the transmission information N 1856 into an intermittent or protected signal using the group of MTUs corresponding to the information 1856. The transmission control module 1844 can control the transmitter N 1814 for coding through its encoder 1816 information groups included in the transmission information N 1854 in a signal where the transmitter 1816 can transmit. For example, the transmission control module 1844 can encode the information group included in the transmission information N 1856 into an intermittent signal or some signal using the set of MTUs corresponding to the information 1856. As an alternative, in various embodiments of the transmitters 1810, 1814, a single transmitter can be used which internally blends signal mixes based on the transmission information 1 1854 and the transmission information N 1856 under the direction of the transmission control module 1844. Said mixing operation may comprise the superimposition of regular and intermittent signals before the transmission and / or selective formation of a transmission group MTU including each of the elements of the intermittent signal and the elements in the regular signal not included. in the intermittent signal. The reception control module 1846 controls the operation of the receivers 1802, 1804 to receive a combined signal and extract two groups of information, for example, reception information 1 1850 and reception information N 1852, according to the present invention. The reception process under the control of the reception control module 1846 may include control of the decoders 1803, 1805 and control of the other elements within the receivers. In some embodiments, the 1846 receiver control module controls impulse noise filters, background noise filters and error correction modules with receivers 1802 1804. In some embodiments, the receiver control module controls the second. identification module MTU of signal in a receiver, for example, receiver N 1804 and discards the module in the other receiver, for example receiver 1 1802 and transports the identified MTU information 1858 from receiver N 1804 to receiver 1 1802; this allows the receiver 1 1802 to eliminate the MTUs that include intermittent signal information from the information stream that enters the error detection module that is trying to recover the group of regular signal information. The error correction module 1840 works in conjunction with, or in lieu of an error detection and correction module which may be included in the receivers 1802, 1804. The error detection and correction capability included in the receivers 1802, 1804 and / or the module 1840 allows the base station 1800 to reconstruct the information groups corresponding to the groups of prior transmission information, even though the signal (regular or underlying) representing the group of prior transmission information has been affected by the superposition of a second intermittent signal (intermittent signal) or perforation through, for example, the replacement of some MTUs, through a second signal (intermittent signal). In some implementations, the MTUs that correspond to the second group of information overlap completely with the MTUs that correspond to the first group of information. In addition, in certain modalities, the MTUs corresponding to the first group of information occupy a complete block of transmission. Figure 19 illustrates an example end node (wireless terminal) 1900 according to the present invention. The example end node 1900 can be used at any of the end nodes 1708, 1710, 1708 ', 1710' of Figure 17. The example end node 1900, for example, the wireless terminal, can be a terminal mobile, mobile, mobile node, fixed wireless device, etc. In this application, references to the end node 1900 may be interpreted as corresponding to any of a wireless terminal, mobile node, etc. The wireless terminals can be mobile nodes or stationary devices that support wireless communication links. The example end node 1900 includes a plurality of receivers, the receiver 1 1902, the receiver N 1904, a plurality of transmitters, the transmitter 1 1910, the transmitter N 1912, a processor 1926, for example CPU and memory 1930 coupled together through a bus 1928. The various elements 1902, 1904, 1910, 1912, 1926, 1930 can exchange data and information through the bus 1928. The receivers 1902, 1904 and the transmitters 1910, 1912 are coupled to the antennas 1906, 1908 and 1914, 1916, respectively, and provide a way for the end node, eg, wireless terminal 1900 to communicate, for example, exchange data and information with a base station 1800 in whose cell coverage area the terminal is operating wireless 1900. Each receiver 1902, 1904 may include a decoder 1918, 1920, respectively, which receives and decodes signaling which has been encoded and transmitted by a 1800 base station. The sensors 1902, 1904 can be any of, or variations of, example receivers shown in the apparatuses 5 1502 of FIG. 15, the apparatus 6 1532 of FIG. 15, or the apparatus 7 1562 of FIG. 16, for example the receivers (FIG. 1506, 1508), (1536, 1542), (1563, 1564). The receivers 1902, 1904, in accordance with the present invention, must have the ability to receive a combined signal including, a regular or underlying signal and an intermittent signal and retrieve groups of information corresponding to the original prior transmission information groups. . Each transmitter 1910, 1912 may include an encoder 1922, 1946 encoding the signaling before transmission. The transmitters 1910, 1912 can be any of, or variations of, the example transmitters shown in the apparatus 1302 and the apparatus 2 1308 of FIG. 13, the apparatus 3 of FIG. 14 or the apparatus 4 1410 of FIG. 14, for example, the transmitters (1304 and 1310), (1404), (1412). The 1910 transmitters, 1912 must, in accordance with the present invention, have the ability to transmit one or more of the following: regular or underlying signal, intermittent signal and / or combined signal. Memory 1930 includes routines 1932 and data / information 1934. Processor 1926 controls the operation of end node 1900 by executing routines 1932 and using information / data 1934 in memory 1930 to operate receivers 1902, 1904 and transmitters 1910, 1912 for carrying out the processing to control the basic functionality of the wireless terminal, and to control and implement the new features and improvements of the present invention, including the generation and transmission of combined signals, the reception of combined signals, separation of the combined signal in regular or underlying signal information and intermittent signal information, separation and retrieval of information.

The routines 1932 may include communication routines 1936 and control routines of the wireless terminal 1938. The wireless terminal control routine 1938 includes a transmission control module 1940, a receiver control module 1942, an error correction module. 1946. Data / information 1934 includes user data 1947, Terminal Identification (ID) information 1948, information received 1 1950, information received N 1952, transmission information 1 1954, transmission information N 1956, MTU information identified 1958, segment information 1960, quality information 1962, and base station ID information 1964. User data 1947 includes data that will be transmitted to base station 1800 and data received from base station 1800 and intermediate data, for example , data involved in the decoding process of information retrieval detected. The transmission information may include a group of information that may correspond to a first signal, for example, regular or underlying signal, information that defines the transmission block of the MTUs that can be used to transmit the first signal, information that defines the first group of MTUs that will be used to define the signal, information that can be modulated in the first group of MTUs to define the first signal, information * "which defines which MTUs correspond to the first signal information that must be transmitted, for example, to a base station 1800. In some embodiments, each of the 5 MTUs transported by the first group of information data will be transmitted to the base station 1800. In other embodiments, most of the MTUs that it transports in the first information group must be transmitted to the base station 1800. The information of transmission N 1956 may include a group of information that may correspond to a second signal, for example, an intermittent signal, information defining the transmission block of the MTUs that may be used to transmit the second signal, for example, a station base, information that defines a second group of MTUs that will be used to define the second signal, information that must be modulated in the second group of MTUs to define the second signal. The information received 1 1950 includes a first group of information retrieved from the receiver 1, 1902, for example, information corresponding to a first group of pre-transmission information of the base station. The first group of recovered information may have been retrieved, for example, from a regular or underlying signal. The information received N 1952 includes a second group of information retrieved from the receiver N, 1904, for example information corresponding to a second group of pre-transmission information of the base station. The second group of recovered information may have been recovered, for example, from an intermittent signal. The regular and intermittent signal that defines each of the original pre-broadcast information group share some common MTUs. The identified MTU information 1958 may include a group of MTUs identified in the second signal or intermittent signal, the group of MTUs identified may have been obtained from the receiver decoder N 1920. The identified MTU information 1958 may be sent to the receiver 1 1902, in where the receiver 1902 can exclude the MTUs before passing the received signal to the error correction module in the decoder 1918, or alternatively, the identified MTU information 1958 can be sent to the error correction module 1946 in the memory and / or the correction module in the decoder 1918. The terminal ID information 1948 is an ID assigned to the base station. The base station ID information 1964 includes information, for example, a slot value, which can be used to identify a specific base station which is connected to the wireless terminal 1900. Using the base station ID 1964 information, and the terminal ID 1948, the wireless terminal can determine the data and control the jump sequences. The 1962 quality information may include information from detected pilots, measurements and quality reports of the downlink channel, interference levels, power information such as current transmission level and battery power level, SNR, etc. The quality information 1962 can be fed back to the base station 1800 to be used in sorting the receiver in the form of "stronger" or "weaker" receivers, to assist the 1800 base station in its programming and allocation, including assignment of regular or underlying segments and intermittent segments according to the present invention. The segment information 1960 may include information that defines the segments assigned to the user in terms of type of use, for example, traffic channel, allocation channel, requisition channel; features, for example, MTUs, frequency / phase and time OFDM tone-symbols; type of signals to be used for the segment, for example, underlying versus intermittent regulator. The communication routine 1936 includes various communication applications that can be used to provide particular services, for example, telephony and IP services, text services and / or interactive games to one or more end node users. The control routines of the wireless terminal 1938 control the basic functionality of the wireless terminal 1900 including the operation of the transmitters 1910, 1912 and receivers 1902, 1904, generation and reception of signal including data jump / control sequences, status control and power control. The control routines of the 1938 wireless terminal also control and implement the new features and improvements of the present invention, including the generation and transmission of combined signals, the reception of combined signals, separation of the combined signal into regular or underlying signal information. and intermittent signal information, separation and retrieval of information. The transmitter control module 1940 may use data / information 1934 including transmission information 1 1954, transmission information N 1956, terminal ID 1948, user data 1947 and segment information 1960 to generate the transmission signals and control the operation of the transmitters 1910, 1912 according to the present invention. For example, the control module of the transmitter 1940 can control the transmitter 1910 to encode through its encoder 1922, information groups included in transmission information 1 1954 into a regular or underlying signal which can transmit the transmitter 1 1910 The transmission control module 1940 can control the transmitter N 1912 to encode through its encoder 1924 groups of information included in the transmission information N 1956 into a protected intermittent signal using the group of MTUs corresponding to the information of the 1956. As an alternative, in various embodiments of the transmitters 1910, 1912, a single transmitter can be used which combines or internally mixes the signal based on the transmission information 1 1954 and the transmission information N 1956 under the direction of the transmitter control module 1844. Said mixing operation may comprise superimposition of regular and intermittent signals before transmission and / or selectively forming a transmission group MTU that includes each of the elements in the intermittent signal and the elements in the regular signal not included in the intermittent signal. The control module of the receiver 1942 controls the operation of the receivers 1902, 1904 to receive a combined signal and extract two groups of information, for example, the information of the receiver 1 1950 and the information of the receiver N 1952, according to the present invention. The reception process under the control of the receiver control module 1942 may include control of the decoders 1918, 1920 and control of the other elements within the receivers. In some embodiments, the receiver control module 1942 controls the impulse noise filters, the background noise filters and the error detection modules with the receivers 1902, 1904. In some embodiments, the receiver control module 1942 controls the second identification module MTU of the signal in a receiver, for example the N 1904 receiver and the waste module in another receiver, for example the 1 1902 receiver, and transports identified MTU information 1858 from the N 1904 receiver to the 1 1902 receiver; this allows the receiver 1 1902 to eliminate the MTUs that include intermittent signal information from the information stream entering the error correction module that is attempting to retrieve the set of information from the regular signal. The error correction module 1946 works together with, or in lieu of an error correction module that may be included in the 1902, 1904 receivers. The error detection and correction capability included in the 1902, 1904 and / or 1846 receivers allows the 1900 wireless terminal to reconstruct groups of information that correspond to groups of information of previous transmission, even though the signal (regular or underlying) representing the group of information of previous transmission has been affected by the superposition of a second intermittent signal (intermittent signal) or the perforation to through, for example, the replacement of some MTU (s), through a second signal (intermittent signal). An on-off manipulation is a modulation technique in which the transmitter concentrates its energy along a subset of the degrees of freedom occupied by the code word. For example, the pulse position modulation is an illustration of an on-off manipulation in which the transmitter uses energy only in those positions where a? L 'is communicated, and turns off when communicating? 0'. The pulse position modulation can communicate bits log2 (M) by concentrating the energy in one of the M positions. An additional bit can be communicated using positive and negative pulses. An example of pulse position modulation is illustrated in Figure 3. Figure 3 shows a pattern 300 with 32 slots, for example, individual example slot 302. The energy is concentrated in the 17th slot 306 and is represented by One-touch 304. In Figure 3, 5 bits of information can be communicated using the 32 locations or slots, if the push 304 can be in only one direction, for example, positive. In Figure 3, 6 bits of information can be communicated using the 32 locations or slots if the beat 304 can be positive or negative. In general, information can be communicated in two ways in a generalization of first-hand on-off manipulation, the location of the energy within the degrees of freedom occupied by the code word, and secondly, the information contained in the signs that occupy the location. For example, if the channel can be estimated in the mobile with the help of a reference signal, the information can be encoded in the phase and / or amplitude in addition to the information encoded in the location of the energy of the ignition signal. generalized shutdown. This form of generalized on-off manipulation can be referred to in the rest of this document as intermittent signaling. Normally, the concentration of energy is restricted to a small subset of degrees of freedom available in the intermittent signaling paradigm. Intermittent signaling can be used according to the present invention. Simple examples of intermittent coding according to the present invention will be described. A method of the present invention applied to a digital communication system using BPSK signaling is considered. In the example considered here, it is assumed that the air link resource comprises 16 symbols. For example, in the exemplary dispersion spectrum OFDM multiple access system, 16 air link resource symbols may be 16 orthogonal tones in an OFDM symbol period, or a tone in 16 periods of OFDM symbols, or any combination of appropriate symbol periods and tones (for example four tones in four OFDM symbol periods). In Figure 4, the superimposed signal 400 includes a regular signal 420 which is communicated using a codeword whose energy encompasses the 16 BPSK symbols, as illustrated in Figure 4 by small rectangles without shading. The regular code word can be constructed, using for example, a convolutional code. It is assumed that the protected signal is required to communicate 5 bits of information. In this modality, the 5 protected bits can be communicated using the position of a high power symbol 430, as illustrated in Figure 4 through a single larger rectangle with shading. The protected signal comprises a symbol BPSK 430 transmitted in high power, while the regular signal 420 with the energy distributed in the 16 symbols is superimposed therein. It should be noted that the symbol BPSK of the protected signal can be in any of the 16 different positions of the symbol. As a reference, the first symbol 401 and the 16th symbol 416 are identified in figure 4. For example, in figure 4, the symbol BPSK is transmitted in the ninth symbol. Accordingly, the position of the symbol carries four bits of the 5 protected bits of information. In addition, the phase (for example, sign) of the symbol BPSK carries the 5th protected bit. To observe the advantage of this coding scheme of the present invention with respect to the classical overlay coding scheme, the stronger receiver design should be considered again. The strongest receiver can use an idea of successive decoding. The stronger receiver first decodes the protected signal, or alternatively, subtracts it from the composite received signal, and finally decodes the regular signal, or alternatively, signals the weaker signal receiver to discard the tones in which it is detected. the biggest signal. It should be noted with the new coding scheme of the present invention, even if the cancellation is not perfect, that the damage to the regular code word is limited to one or some symbols, and therefore the receiver can minimize the adverse impact of the hurt. For example, in the decoding process, the receiver can ignore the symbol that is occupied by the regular signal. In this case, the cancellation operation is reduced to cause it to be erased at a particular symbol location, with the possibility that the error correction codes can be used to correct the loss. In the example of Figure 4 above, each BPSK symbol of the 16 air link resource symbols represents a degree of freedom. The regular signal distributes its energy in the 16 degrees of freedom. Meanwhile, each code word of the protected signal concentrates its energy in one of the 16 degrees of freedom. It should be noted that the intermittent signal, as defined in the previous embodiment, is an orthogonal code. However, the present invention is not contingent on any of the orthogonality properties of the code words. The transmitter design for use with the coding implemented in accordance with the present invention will be described below. The previous example illustrates aspects and methods of the present invention, which can be implemented and used in various communication systems. This method of superposition of signals, concentrating the energy of the protected signal between a small subset of available degrees of freedom, while distributing the energy of the regular signal between substantially all the available degrees of freedom, is called in this document of intermittent overlap. The protected codeword is denoted as the "intermittent signal", and the regular codeword is denoted as the "regular signal" or "underlying signal" in this description. Although in general, the method is for transmitting the protected information using the intermittent signal and the regular information in the regular signal, this, in some embodiments of the present invention, can be reversed. Intermittent signaling, in accordance with the present invention, provides a way to superimpose signals that allow the superposition coding gains to be robustly carried out in practical receivers. In general, the intermittent signal and the regular signal are communicated using the same group of transmission resources. Nevertheless, each code word in the intermittent signal concentrates its energy in a small subset of available degrees of freedom. Each code word of the regular signal can scatter its energy through each of the available degrees of freedom. In order for the intermittent signal to be detected and decoded easily, it would be desirable for its energy to be greater, in some modes the energy is significantly greater, than that of the regular signal in the selected subgroup of the degrees of freedom corresponding to the intermittent signal This relatively higher energy concentration in the selected intermittent subgroup is feasible even when the total energy of the regular signal is greater than the total energy of the intermittent signal. Finally, in order for the regular signal to be easily detected and decoded, the impact of the intermittent signal on the regular code word must be minimal. In other words, the loss of energy in the selected subset of degrees of freedom occupied by the intermittent signal, should have a small impact on the decoding of the regular codeword. The selection of transmission powers in the intermittent signal and the regular signal depends on several factors including, (a) the SNR of the target receivers of both intermittent and regular signals; (b) the ranges of information conveyed in the intermittent irregular signals; and (c) the method of construction of codes in intermittent irregular signals. In general, the powers can be chosen independently to meet their own robustness and coding performance requirements. In addition, intermittent signaling can be carried out in a timely manner to maximize flexibility. Specifically, the transmitter can choose in a timely manner not to transmit the intermittent signal and to use most of its available power to transmit the regular signal. Alternatively, the transmitter may choose to transmit the intermittent signal in a timely manner with most of its available power and choose not to transmit the regular signal. Next, the design of the receiver for use with the coding implemented in accordance with the present invention will be described. In one embodiment of the present invention, the receiver first decodes the intermittent signal. The intermittent signal can be detected in the receiver since it is received with a much higher power than the regular code word in a small subset of degrees of freedom. Subsequently, the receiver cancels the impact of the intermittent signal before attempting to decode the regular codeword. In the case of a classical overlay encoding, the cancellation comprises decoding the protected codeword and subtracting it from the composite received signal. In the intermittent overlap encoding, in one embodiment the receiver completely discards the received signal in the sub-group of degrees of freedom of the code word of the decoded intermittent signal, when the receiver is for decoding the regular signal. As the regular signal distributes its signal energy at all r degrees of freedom, the erasure of the signal energy in a small subset of the degrees of freedom must have little or even negligible performance implications in the decoding of the word. of regular code due to the ability to detect and correct the decoder error. In another embodiment of the present invention, the receiver does not explicitly cancel the signal flashing before it decodes the regular signal. In fact, the receiver directly decodes the regular signal of the composite received signal, which may include the intermittent signal. The receiver uses temporal metrics coupled with saturation limits in inverses.

Accordingly, the intermittent signal serves to substantially saturate or erase the signal components in the subset of the degrees of freedom it occupies, but has a negligible impact on the performance of the decoding of the regular codeword. Furthermore, if the receiver is not interested in the intermittent signal, the receiver can only decode the regular signal without decoding the intermittent signal, in which case the receiver may not even realize the presence of the intermittent signal, which can be interpreted and / or treated as an impulse or background noise.

A control channel embodiment of the present invention will be described below. In this section, one embodiment of the present invention applies to a control channel of the example system that will be described. The control channel in this example carries information from a base station 1702 through the downlink broadcast channel to a plurality of mobile users 1708, 1710 in a cellular wireless system 1700, as shown in Figure 17. In Most wireless cellular systems, the control channels are transmitted in a transmission power, as they are restricted by mobile users with the weakest channels. Intermittent signaling is well suited for this application in this scenario, and results in a significant power reduction with little or no loss in robustness. It is assumed that the information carried in the control channel can be separated into multiple subgroups, each one projected for one or more subgroups of mobile users within the system. In this example, we will assume that the control channel information can be divided into two subgroups. The first subgroup is denoted "regular information", and is projected for those mobile users who experience a moderate to high downlink SNR. The second subgroup, denoted as "protected information", is projected for a subset of users who experience a very low downlink SNR. In the example considered here, it is assumed that the air link resource comprises 32 symbols. For example, in the exemplary dispersion spectrum OFDM multiple access system, the air link facility may have 32 orthogonal tones in an OFDM symbol period, or a tone in 32 periods of OFDM symbols, or any combination of tones and appropriate symbol periods (for example 4 tones in 8 OFDM symbol periods). As illustrated in the superimposed signal 500 of FIG. 5, the regular information 540 represented by the small rectangles without shading, in this example is transmitted using a code word of 32 symbols. The location 501 of the first symbol and the location 532 of the 32nd symbol are shown as a reference. This code word is transmitted in a power that is sufficient to be decoded by the subgroup of users experiencing a moderate or high SNR. Low SNR users are not likely to have the ability to decode this code word, and therefore the power requirements are much lower than they could be if the code word had to be decoded by each of the mobile users This difference in ability to decode the codeword is especially real in a wireless environment, where mobile users can experience a SNR that varies by several orders of magnitude. The protected information, which is projected for a subset of low SNR mobile users, is transmitted using an intermittent signal 550 as illustrated in FIG. 5 and represented by four large rectangles with shading. In this mode, each protected codeword is supposed to concentrate its energy at four symbol locations 502, 512, 520, 530. Groups of four symbol locations are assumed not to overlap in this example, which results in 8 orthogonal groups, each of which includes four symbol locations. However, in general the groups of the code word may overlap partially or completely in other constructions. Concentrating the energy of the protected codeword into more than one symbol location is valuable from the point of view of providing diversity in wireless cellular systems and produces a greater degree of protection against channel fading and interference. In the example of Figure 5, each group of protected code words communicate 3 bits through their location alone. Let K be the index of the eight different groups of air link resource symbols. It is assumed that the 32 air link resource symbols are indexed from 0 to 31. For k = 0, ..., 7, the air link resource symbols of the location of the set of k-th symbols are k symbols, k + 8, k + 16, and k + 24. When an intermittent signal code word includes multiple symbols, the additional information bits can be communicated using said symbols. Let it. { qO, ql, q2, q3} denote the four symbols that will be transmitted with the four air link resource symbols of any of the eight groups of air link resource symbols. In one modality,. { qO, ql, q2, q3} can be constructed with four Walsh codes of length 4, as tabulated in table 1. The selection of qO, ql, q2, or q3 results in 2 additional bits that are transported through the choice of four code words . This information can be decoded in the mobile receiver in a simple way. The mobile receiver can identify the location of the intermittent signal due to its superior energy, which serves to identify the 3 bits of the locations of the symbol set. Subsequently, it extracts the symbols comprising the intermittent signal and decodes the remaining 2 bits. This codeword construction example results in code words that possess an unparalleled error protection property. The bits that are resolved by the location of the intermittent signal are received with high reliability. This is especially true when an intermittent signal is communicated through a wireless channel, since only one of the four symbol locations needs to be received to specify the set of the code word. The detection of qO, ql, q2, or q3 may be more susceptible to fading or channel interference errors. Alternatively, the receiver may employ a more sophisticated decoder, such as maximum likelihood decoder, to decode the intermittent signal in its entirety. Again, the present invention is not contingent on the use of orthogonal codes in intermittent signals, as illustrated in this example. This concept can be extended in a simple way to multidimensional modulation groups. For example, if a BPSK modulation was to be used, one or more bits may be sent with the phase (eg, sign) of the code word of the intermittent signal. In addition, if the QPSK modulation was to be used, an additional bit can be sent with the signaling selection either in phase or quadrature.

Table 1. Construction of Orthogonal Codes in Intermittent Signals In accordance with the present invention, intermittent signaling in multiple access channels will be described. Although the present invention has been described in a broadcast channel paradigm, it can also be applied in a multiple access channel structure. This aspect of the present invention will be described within the context of the cellular uplink of the example system, which is a multiple access channel. A receiver of the base station that is receiving signals from two mobile transmitters in the uplink should be considered. Since the base station 1702 is also the coordination entity, it can be differentiated between the two transmitters in a relative sense. It is assumed that the mobile transmitter operating through a channel with a lower path loss is designated as the "strongest" transmitter, and the other transmitter, which experiences a greater path loss, is considered as a transmitter "more weak". The base station instructs the weaker transmitter to transmit its signal by distributing the signal energy through each of the degrees of freedom, even though the strongest transmitter is instructed to concentrate its transmit power in a few degrees of freedom. The composite received signal 600 in the receiver of the base station 1802 is illustrated in FIG. 6. The receiver of the base station 1802 can easily decode and cancel the intermittent signal 610, represented by a large rectangle without shading, transmitted from the transmitter "more strong "before decoding the weak signal 620, represented by small rectangles without shading, transmitted from the" weaker "transmitter. The categorization of mobile transmitters as "stronger" or "weaker" is not static and is a relative definition, which allows flexibility within the system. The notion of mobile transmitters as being "stronger" or "weaker" can be associated with other criteria instead of or in addition to the path loss experienced in the uplink channel. This labeling or categorization of "stronger" or "weaker" mobile transmitter is in some modalities applied within the context of the cost of interference in the cellular uplink. For example, a mobile transmitter that results in higher uplink interference in other cells, can be considered as a "weaker" transmitter and can therefore be instructed by the base station to transmit its signal by distributing energy through the transmitter. each one of the degrees of freedom. On the other hand, a mobile transmitter which has little interference cost due to its location, can be considered a "stronger" transmitter, and can use intermittent overlap coding to superimpose its signal on that of the "weaker" transmitter. As an alternative, in some embodiments, mobile transmitters can be categorized, "stronger" or "weaker" based on the restrictions of the device, such as power or battery status. Intermittent signaling in an example system should be described according to the methods and apparatus of the present invention. In an exemplary wireless data communication system, the air link resource generally includes bandwidth, time and power. The air link facility that transports the data and / or voice traffic is called the traffic channel. In the example system, the data is communicated through the traffic channel in the segments of the traffic channel (segments of traffic for a moment). The traffic segments can serve as the basic or minimum units of the resources of the available traffic channel. The downlink traffic segments transport data traffic from the base station to the wireless terminals, although the uplink traffic segments transport data traffic from the wireless terminals to the base station. In the example system, the traffic segment includes a number of frequency tones over a finite time interval. In the exemplary system used to explain the present invention, the traffic segments are dynamically shared between the wireless terminals 1708, 1710 that are communicating with the base station 1702. A programming function, for example, the 1838 module in the base station 1800 assigns each uplink and downlink segment to one of the mobile terminals 1708, 1710, based on a number of criteria. The allocation of traffic segments can be to different users from one segment to another. For example, in Figure 7, in the frequency graph 700 on the vertical axis 702 versus time on the horizontal axis 704, the segment A 706, shown with the vertical line shaded, is assigned to the user number 1 through the programmer of the base station and segment B 708 shown with the shaded horizontal line is assigned to user number 2. The base station programmer can quickly assign the segments of the traffic channel to different users according to their traffic needs and channel conditions , which may vary in time in general. The traffic channel is therefore effectively shared and assigned dynamically among different users on a segment-by-segment basis. In the example system, the allocation information of the traffic channel segments is transported in the allocation channel, which includes a series of allocation segments. In a cellular wireless system, such as the system 1700 shown in Figure 17, the allocation segments are generally transmitted in the downlink. There are allocation segments for the downlink traffic segments and separate allocation segments for the uplink traffic segments. Each traffic segment is associated with a single allocation segment. The associated allocation segment carries the allocation information of the traffic segment. The assignment information may include the identifier of the user's terminal (s), which is assigned to use the traffic segment, and also for the coding and modulation scheme that will be used in the traffic segment. Figure 8 includes a graph 800 with a vertical axis 802, which represents the frequency and a horizontal axis 804 that represents time. Figure 8 shows two allocation segments, the allocation segment A '(AS A') 806 and the allocation segment B '(AS B') 808, which carry the allocation information of the traffic segments A ( TSA) 810 and B (TSB) 812. The allocation channel is a shared channel resource. Users, for example wireless terminals, receive allocation information transported in the allocation channel, and subsequently use the channel segments of the traffic according to the allocation information. The data transmitted by the base station 1702 in a downlink traffic segment is decoded through a receiver in the projected wireless terminal 1708, 1710, although the data transmitted by the assigned wireless terminal 1708, 1710 in the link segment Upstream, they are decoded by a receiver in the base station 1702. Normally the transmitted segment includes redundant bits that help the receiver determine if the data is decoded correctly. This is done because the wireless channel can be unreliable and the data traffic, which will be useful, usually has higher integrity requirements. Due to the interference, noise and / or fading of the channel in a wireless system, the transmission of a traffic segment can succeed or fail. In the example system, the receiver of a traffic segment sends an acknowledgment to indicate whether the segment has been received correctly. The recognition information that corresponds to the traffic channel segments is transported in the recognition channel, which includes a series of recognition segments. Each traffic segment is associated with a single recognition segment. For a downlink traffic segment, the recognition segment is in the uplink. For a segment of uplink traffic, the recognition segment is in the downlink. At a minimum, the recognition segment carries an information bit, for example, a bit that indicates whether the associated traffic segment has been correctly received or not. Due to a predetermined association between uplink traffic segments and recognition segments, it may not be necessary to transport other information, such as the user identifier or segment index in a recognition segment. A recognition segment is normally used by the user's terminal, for example, wireless terminal 1708, 1710 using the associated traffic segment and not other user terminals. In this way, in both of the links (uplink and downlink) the recognition channel is a shared resource, since it can be used by multiple users. However, there is generally no contention resulting from the use of the shared recognition channel, since there is generally no ambiguity in which the user's terminal is to use a particular recognition segment. Figure 9 shows a graph 900 of downlink traffic segments including a vertical axis 902 representing frequency, a horizontal axis 904 representing time, a first traffic segment, traffic segment (TS) A 906 and a second TSB traffic segment 908. Figure 9 also shows a second graph 950 of uplink recognition segments (ACK) including a vertical axis 952 representing the frequency and a horizontal axis 954 representing time. Figure 9 further shows two uplink recognition segments, A "956 and B" 958, which carry the recognition information of the downlink traffic segments A 906 and B 908 of the wireless terminal 1708 to the station base 1702. As described above, the example system 1700 can be a packet switched cellular wireless data system with traffic segments dynamically assigned by the base station 1702 in the downlink as well as in the uplink. The application of the present invention to the example system 1700 will be described below in the context of the cellular downlink. It is assumed that the base station 1702 can allocate up to two traffic segments at a time in a time-slotted manner. The choice of users for whom these segments are projected is broadcast in an allocation channel. It is also assumed without loss of generality, that one of the two users operates in a lower SNR than the other user. Within this context, two users are considered as "stronger" and "weaker" mutually. The graph of Figure 10 illustrates the frequency on the vertical axis 1002 versus time on the horizontal axis 1004. Figure 10 also includes an allocation segment A (regular) (ASG) 1006, a segment of traffic channel A (TCHa 1008, a recognition segment A (intermittent) (ACKf) 1010, an intermittent assignment segment B (ASGf) 1005, a traffic channel segment B (TCHb) 1007 and a recognition segment B (ACKr) 1009. ASGf 1005 is within the frequency spectrum of ASGr 1006. ACKf 1010 is within the frequency spectrum of ACKr 1009. As illustrated in Figure 10, the strongest user assignment information, (ASGr), 1006 is transmitted using the regulated signal in the allocation channel, although the information, (ASGf), 1005 of the weakest user is communicated using the intermittent signal. The stronger receiver learns from his (regular) assignment that he is receiving a traffic segment, denoted TCHa 1008, while the weaker receiver is similarly notified of its corresponding traffic segment, denoted TCHb 1007, through the intermittent signaling assignment (ASGf) 1005. In the example system, the mobile receivers 1708 , 1710 provide feedback recognition in the uplink to the base station 1702 to indicate the status of the received traffic segment. The two mobile users 1708, 1710 can use intermittent signaling to overlay their recognition signals as shown in Figure 10. For this purpose, the "strongest" receiver in the downlink is supposed to be the strongest transmitter. in the uplink, and therefore communicates its recognition using an intermittent signal (ACKf) 1010. The weaker receiver distributes the energy of its recognition signal through each of the degrees of freedom and communicates it to the base station 1702 in the form of a regular signal (ACKr) 1009. The involvement of capacity for cellular wireless systems is described with respect to intermittent signaling. Wireless cellular systems are normally restricted by interference and their capacity depends on the amount and characteristics of the environmental interference. The use of intermittent signaling has a very important effect on interference levels. It is a well-known theoretical result of information, that between all the noise signals with the same energy, the Gaussian noise results in the lowest capacity. The intermittent signals, by virtue of their construction, are peaks and not highly Gaussian by nature. Therefore, due to the same amount of total interference, when a cell in a wireless system uses intermittent signals, the impact of these cells (in the form of interference) on other cells is less than it could have been with signals Gaussian type. This applies to uplink paths, as well as downlink, of cellular wireless systems. Figure 11 illustrates two groups of example information, a first group of information 1150 and a second group of information 1160 that can be transmitted using a transmission block, according to the present invention. The first information group 1150 includes information Ai 1151, information A2 1152, information AN 1153; the second information group 1160 includes information Bi 1161, information B2 1162, information BM 1163. The first group of information may be, for example, user data, assignments or acknowledgments. The second group of information may be, for example, user data, acknowledgments or assignments. Figure 11 also shows a graph 1100 of minimum transmission units (MTU), where the vertical axis represents frequency tones and the horizontal axis 1104 represents time. In Figure 11, each small box refers to a specific MTU unit, for example, division 1112, represents a degree of freedom which can be used to transmit information. Each slot on the horizontal axis, for example, slot 1110 represents the time to transmit an MTU, for example, an OFDM symbol time. Each square in Figure 11, for example the square of example 1114 represents an MTU unit. Each MTU corresponds to a unique combination of resources used for the transmission of information, including the combination of resources at least two of time, frequency, phase and dispersion code. In an OFDM system, an MTU may over time be a frequency or phase, for example, an in-phase or quadrature component in an OFDM tone symbol. In a CDMA system, an MTU unit can be, for example, a spreading code assigned for a unit of time. An example transmission block 1106, which is the group of 24 MTUs, is shown in Figure 11. The information for the first information group 1150 is defined through a first set of minimum transmission units. The first set of minimum transmission units is identified through the squares with a diagonal line 1116 that ascends from left to right. The first group of example MTUs includes 15 MTUs, for example, the example MTU 1120 is the first group of MTUs. The first group of MTUs includes at least a majority of the MTUs in the transmission block 1106, according to the present invention. In some embodiments, the first group of MTUs includes at least 75% of the MTUs in the transmission block 1106. The example of Figure 11 is a modality that includes 15 first groups of MTUs / 20 blocks 1106, with a number Total MTUs = at 75%. The information of the second information group 1160 is defined through a second group of minimum transmission units. The second group of minimum transmission units is identified by the squares with a diagonal line 1118 that descends from left to right. The second group of example minimum transmission units includes three MTUs. According to the present invention, the second group of MTUs includes fewer MTUs than the first group of MTUs, and some of the MTUs in the first and second groups of MTUs are the same. For example, in Figure 11, two MTUs are included in both groups, MTUs 1122 and MTUs 1123. In some embodiments, the second group of MTUs has less than half the number of MTUs of the first group of MTUs; Figure 11 is an illustration of said plurality. The information in the first and second information groups 1150, 1160, can be communicated, for example, from a base station 1702 to a wireless terminal 1708, 1710, using minimum transmission units included in the first and second groups of transmission units minimal Figure 12 shows a graph 1200 of minimum transmission units (MTU) on vertical axis 1202 versus time on horizontal axis 1204. Figure 12 shows an example transmission block 1205 that includes 1600 MTUs. The first group of information can be represented by a first group of MTUs that includes a majority of the 1600 MTUs in the transmission block 1205. The transmission block 1205, according to the present invention, can be subdivided into sub-blocks. In Figure 11, the 1205 transmission block of the MTUs is divided into 16 sub-blocks of MTUs, including each subgroup 100 MTUs. Each small box, for example the example box 1206, encloses a sub-block of MTUs. In some modalities, the first group of MTUs can be subdivided into small groups of information, each group represented by a first group of MTUs within an individual sub-block. In combination, the small information groups represent a first group of information that is encoded through a majority of the large transmission block 1205. The example sub-block 1207 illustrates 100 typical MTUs of an example sub-block. Example sub-blocks 1208 illustrate 100 typical MTUs of another sub-block. The individual MTUs of the other sub-blocks of the transmission block 1205 are not shown, although each of the other sub-blocks may be assumed to be similar to the example sub-block 1207. Each circle in a sub-block represents an MTU . Each diagonal line that ascends from left to right that intersects a circle represents an individual MTU that is used to represent the information in the first group of information. Each diagonal line descends from left to right intersecting a circle representing an individual MTU that is used to represent the information in the second group of information. In Figure 12, an example MTU 1208 is one of the MTUs used to represent the first group of information; the example MTU 1211 is another of the MTUs used to represent the first group of information. The example MTU 1209 is not used to represent information either in the first group or in the second group of information in the particular case, even if it is within the example transmission block 1205. This is, at the point in time illustrated in In particular, MTU 1209 is not used to carry signals corresponding to the first or second information groups. The example MTU 1210 is used to represent information in both the first information group and the second information group. In the example of figure 12, each sub-block, for example sub-block 1207, can be used to represent information that represents only a part of a first group of information that is being uniquely defined through a small sub-block of MTUs. However, the second group of information may represent a second group of information, for example, 10-bit information. To carry 10-bit information only, 210 = 1024 possible minimum transmission units may be required. The 1205 transmission block with 1600 possible minimum transmission units available can be used, and a single MTU allocated to represent a particular value of the 10-bit information. In this example, the MTU 210 is the MTU that is used to carry information of the second group of information when it is transmitted. Figure 12 represents a case where each of the MTUs included in the second group of MTUs is also included in the first group of MTUs.

Figure 13 1301 illustrates a method for transmitting two groups of information, for example, information groups 1150 and 1160 of Figure 11, according to the present invention. Figure 13 includes a first apparatus, for example, the apparatus 1 1302 which includes a transmitter, transmitter 1, 1304 and a second apparatus, for example apparatus 2 1308 which includes a transmitter 2 1310. Each apparatus can, for example, be a base station or a wireless terminal of the type shown in Figure 17. The first information group 1150 is communicated by signals, for example the signal 1, 1306, transmitted from the transmitter 1, 1304. The signal 1306 is sometimes referred to as the underlying or regular signal. The second information group 1160 is communicated by signals, for example signal 1 1312, transmitted from the transmitter 2 1310. The signal 2 is sometimes referred to as the intermittent signal. In the example case of Figure 13, signal 1 1306 could use the first group of minimum transmission units, although signal 2 1312 could use the second group of minimum transmission units. Some of the first MTU groups transmitted by transmitter 1 1304 could be the same as those of the second group of MTUs resulting in some overlap of signal 1 1306 and signal 1 1312. Figure 14 illustrates two methods for transmitting two groups of information, for example information groups 1150 and 1160 of Figure 11 according to the present invention. In the first method described in Figure 14, an exemplary apparatus 3 1402, for example a base station or wireless terminal includes a transmitter, transmitter 3 1404 with the ability to transmit signals that correspond to both the first and second information groups 1150 , 1160, respectively. Figure 14, the signal 3 1406 corresponds to the first information group 1150 and uses a first group of MTUs, although the signal 4 1408 corresponds to a second information group 1160 and uses a second group of MTUs. The signal 3 1406 is sometimes referred to as the underlying signal or regular signal whereas the signal 4 1408 is sometimes referred to as the intermittent signal. Signal 4 1408 is transmitted at a higher power level than signal 3 1406 on a base per minimum transmission unit. In some embodiments, the power level at which the signal 4 1408 is transmitted is at least 3db greater than the power level at which the minimum transmission units corresponding to signal 3 1406 are transmitted. In some embodiments, the level The transmission power of the minimum transmission signals used to transmit the 3 1406 signal can be varied. The transmission power level of the MTUs used to transmit the 4 1408 signal can also be varied. In the second method described in Figure 14, an example apparatus, the apparatus 4 1410, for example, a base station or wireless terminal includes a transmitter, transmitter 4 1412. The transmitter 4 1412 includes a first signal module 1411 and a second signal module 1413. The first signal module 1411 generates the signal 5 1414 corresponding to the first information group 1150. The second signal module 1413 generates the signal 6 1416 corresponding to the second information group 1160. The signal 5 1414 and the signal 6 1416 are combined through the combination module 1418 before the transmission of the MTUs in the signal 1420. The signal 5 1414 is sometimes referred to as the underlying or regular signal and the signal 6 1416 is sometimes referred to as the intermittent signal. The combination module 1418 can carry out the superposition of the two signals, the signal 5 1414 and the signal 6 1416. Alternatively, the combination module 1418 can compare the group of MTUs that could be used to transmit the signal 5 1414 with the group of MTUs that could be used to transmit the signal 6 1416. The combination module 1418 can direct the signal in the information 6 1414 in each of the requested MTUs; however, the module 1418 can be excluded from the group of MTUs assigned to the signal 5 1414 those MTUs already assigned to carry the signal 6 1416. For example, in the example figure 11, the MTU 1122 and the MTU 1123 could be excluded from carrying the signal information 5 1141. In this way the second information group 1160 in the signal 6 1416, punches or replaces the first information group 1150 in the signal 5 1414, which could occupy the same MTU. This implementation assumes that the receiver has sufficient error detection and correction capability to retrieve the first group of original information 1150, part of which was not transmitted. Therefore, instead of using the actual superposition, the signals corresponding to the second group can be transmitted without being superimposed on signals of the first group with the overlap of the first signals being discarded before the actual transmission. In this case, the MTUs used to communicate the second group of information, drill the group of MTUs in the shared transmission block that was selected to transmit the first group of information. Figure 15 illustrates an example apparatus, the apparatus 1502, for example, a base station or a wireless terminal, which can be used to receive combined signals according to the present invention, and obtain two groups of received information, information A '1516 and information B' 1518. The information A '1516 is a group of recovered information corresponding to the first group of original transmission information A 1150 of figure 11. The information B' 1518 is a group of information retrieved corresponding to the first group of original pre-transmission information B 1160 of Figure 11. The apparatus 5 1502 includes a first receiver, the receiver 1 1506 which includes a pulse noise filter 1510 and an error correction module 1512. A combined signal, the signal 8 1520 which includes the signals that have been transmitted together with time, for example, the signal 3 1406 (regular or underlying signal) of Figure 13 and the signal signal 4 1408 (intermittent signal) of Figure 13, is processed through the receiver 1506 where the pulse noise filter 1510 filters or rejects the signal corresponding to the MTU units derived from the second information group 1160. The signal remaining (regular signal) that corresponds to most of the MTUs in the group of MTUs corresponding to the first information group 1150, is processed through the error correction module 1512 which retrieves the "lost information", and by thus the information group A '1516 received is a good representation of the pre-transmission information group A 1150. The apparatus 5 1502 also includes a second receiver, the receiver 2 1508 which includes a background noise filter 1514. The signal combined 8 1520 also enters the receiver 2 1508, where the background noise filter 1514 processes the signal corresponding to the first information group 1150, for example, the signal 3 1406, in the form of ru gone and eliminates or rejects this low level signal, leaving a signal (for example, the intermittent signal) from which a good representation of the second group of prior transmission information B 1160 can be reconstructed as the received information group B '1518 The second apparatus, apparatus 6, shown in Figure 15, performs the combined signal reception and information retrieval in a manner similar to apparatus 1502. Apparatus 6 1532 includes a first receiver, receiver 1 1540, and the second receiver, receiver 2 1538. The receiver 1 1536 includes a decoder, the decoder 1 1540 which includes a pulse filter 1544 and an error correction module 1546. The receiver 2 1538, includes a decoder, the decoder 2 1542 , which includes a background noise filter 1548. The operation of the apparatus 6 1532 is similar to that described with apparatus 5 1502., except that additional decoding occurs in the apparatus 6 1532. During the operation, the receivers 1536 and 1538 operate independently and in parallel. The first receiver 1536 treats the intermittent signal as pulse noise and rejects the flashing symbols in the form of pulse noise or performs some other operation, for example, a saturation operation, which treats the intermittent component just like any other signals of impulse noise that can be treated. Receiver 2 1538 decodes the intermittent signal while treating the lower power signal as background noise. The combined signal 9 1554 is similar to the combined signal 8 1520 which includes both regular and intermittent signals. The information group received A "1550 corresponds to a good reconstruction of the first group of original transmission information A 1150 of FIG. 11. The information group received B" 1552 corresponds to a good reconstruction of the second group of information of original prior transmission B 1160 of figure 11. Figure 16 shows another example apparatus, the apparatus 7 1562, for example, a base station or wireless terminal, which includes a first receiver, the receiver 1 1563 and a second receiver, the receiver 1564. The receiver 1563 includes a decoder 1565 which includes a scrap module 1570 and an error correction module 1566. The receiver 2 1564 includes a decoder 1566 that includes a background noise filter 1567 and a second module identification signal MTU 1568. The combined signal 10 1573 is received and entered into the receiver 2 1564. In the decoder 1566 of the receiver 2 1564, the signal can be filtered to tr before a background filter 1567 and the information decoded and produced as information group B '' '1572, a reconstruction of the original pre-transmission information group B 1160 of FIG. 11. In addition, the second identification module MTU of signal 1568 identifies a group of MTUs 1569 corresponding to the second signal (intermittent), and sends information 1573 to decoder 1565 of receiver 1563. In some embodiments, the group of MTUs identified 1573 are one of the components in phase and Quadrature of tones in different times of symbols. The scrap module 1570 of the decoder 1565 in the receiver 1 1563 receives the group of MTUs identified 1573 and rejects or removes the information derived from those MTU units before the information enters the error correction module 1566. As an alternative, the Information identifying the MTUs of the second "intermittent" signal or signal can be transported directly to the error correction module 1566 which can eliminate the contribution of the MTUs. Information group A '' '1571 corresponds to a reconstruction of the first group of prior transmission information 1150 of Figure 11. The disposal of the identified MTUs and their contribution to the low power signal is a great contrast to the technique overlap decoding of the prior art, which requires that the high power signal component be subtracted precisely from a received signal unit before the underlying signal can be recovered. Although described within the context of an OFDM system, the methods and apparatus of the present invention apply to a wide range of communication systems that include many of the non-OFDM and / or non-cellular systems. In various embodiments, the nodes described herein are implemented using one or more modules to carry out the steps corresponding to one or more methods of the present invention, for example, signal processing steps, message generation and / or transmission. Therefore, in some embodiments several features of the present invention are implemented using modules. These modules can be implemented using software, hardware or combination of software and hardware. Many of the methods and steps of methods described above can be implemented using machine executable instructions, such as software, included in a machine-readable medium, such as a memory device, e.g., RAM, floppy disk, etc., for controlling a machine, for example a general-purpose computer with and without additional hardware, to implement all or part of the methods described above, for example, in one or more nodes. Accordingly, among other things, the present invention is directed to a machine readable medium that includes machine executable instructions to cause a machine, e.g., a processor and associated hardware, to perform one or more of the steps of the method. (s) described above. Those skilled in the art will appreciate numerous additional variations to the methods and apparatus of the present invention described above, by virtue of the foregoing description of the present invention. Said variations will be considered within the scope of the present invention. The methods and apparatuses of the present invention, in various embodiments, can be used with CDMA communication techniques, orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM), and / or various other types of communication technique which can be used to provide Wireless communication links between access nodes and wireless terminals. In some embodiments, the base stations establish communication links with mobile nodes using OFDM and / or CDMA.

In various modalities, wireless terminals are implemented in the form of note computers, personal data assistants (PDAs), or other portable devices that include receiver / transmitter and logic circuits and / or routines, to implement the methods of the present invention. The techniques of the present invention can be implemented using software, hardware and / or a combination of software and hardware. The present invention is directed to an apparatus, for example wireless terminals, base stations, communication systems that implement the present invention. It is also directed to methods, for example, methods for controlling and / or operating wireless terminals, base stations and / or communication systems, for example, computers, in accordance with the present invention. The present invention is also directed to machine readable media, for example, RAM, ROM, CDs, hard drives, etc., which may include machine-readable instructions for controlling a machine to implement one or more steps in accordance with the present invention.

Claims (23)

1. Novelty of the Invention Having described the present invention, it is considered as a novelty and, therefore, the content of the following is claimed as property:
2. RE IVI ND I CAC IONS 1. - A method for transmitting at least a first and second groups of information using a transmission block, the transmission block including a plurality of minimum transmission units, each minimum transmission unit corresponding to a combination unique resource used for the transmission of information, including at least two resources of time, frequency, phase and dispersion codes, where the method comprises: defining a first group of minimum transmission units to be used in transportation of the first group of information, including the first group at least a majority of the transmission block; define a second group of minimum transmission units to be used in the transport of the second group in information, including the second group of minimum transmission units less minimum transmission units than the first group; at least part of the minimum transmission units in the first and second groups of minimum transmission units being the same; and communicating the first and second information groups using minimum transmission units included in the first and second groups of minimum transmission units. 2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that the information is at least either user data or control information that includes acknowledgments and allocation information.
3. 3. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that the communication of the first and second information groups includes transmit signals corresponding to the first and second information groups respectively, of different transmitters.
4. 4. The method according to claim 3, characterized in that the different transmitters are mounted in different apparatuses.
5. 5. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that the signals corresponding to the first and second information groups are transmitted from the same transmitter.
6. 6. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that the first group of minimum transmission units includes at least 75% of the total number of minimum transmission units in the transmission block.
7. 7. - The method according to claim 6, characterized in that the second group of minimum transmission units has less than half the number of minimum transmission units of the first group of minimum transmission units.
8. 8. The method according to claim 6, characterized in that each of the minimum transmission units included in the second group of minimum transmission units is also included in the first group of minimum transmission units.
9. 9. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that, the communication of the first and second information groups includes transmitting the second group of information using each minimum transmission unit in the second group of minimum transmission units, and wherein the communication of the first group of information includes transmitting the first group of information that transmits at least part of the first group of the minimum transmission units.
10. 10. The method according to claim 9, characterized in that the at least part of the first group of minimum transmission units, includes only minimum transmission units not included in the second group of minimum transmission units.
11. 11. - The method according to claim 9, characterized in that the at least part of the first group of minimum transmission units includes minimum transmission units in the second group.
12. 12. - The method according to claim 11, characterized in that the first and second groups of information are communicated using at least first and second signals, respectively, and wherein the method further comprises combining the first and second signals to form a combined signal before using a minimum transmission unit included in the first and second groups of minimum transmission units to transmit the combined signal.
13. 13. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that the second signal is transmitted at a higher power level than the first signal on a base per minimum transmission unit.; and wherein the communication of the first and second information groups includes: using minimum transmission units that includes using at least part of the minimum transmission units included in the first group of minimum transmission units to transmit a first signal corresponding to the first information group; and using the minimum transmission units in the second group of minimum transmission units to transmit a second signal corresponding to the second group of information.
14. 14. The method according to claim 13, characterized in that the power level at which the minimum transmission units corresponding to the second signal are transmitted, is at least 3dB greater than the power level at which the transmitting power is transmitted. minimum transmission units that correspond to the first signal.
15. 15. The method according to claim 13, characterized in that it further comprises varying the transmission power level of the minimum transmission units used to transmit the second signal.
16. 16. The method according to claim 13, characterized in that it further comprises varying the transmission power level of the minimum transmission units, used to transmit the first signal.
17. 17. An apparatus for receiving a combined signal including first and second transmitted signals that are combined with time, first and second signals that share a group of overlapping communication resources, wherein the overlap resources include at least two of a time, frequency, phase and dispersion code, wherein the apparatus comprises: a first receiver for receiving the combined signal of a communication channel, the first receiver including a filter for processing parts of the combined signal corresponding to the second signal in the form of impulse noise; and a second receiver, set in parallel with the first receiver, to receive the combined signal from the communications channel, the second receiver including a filter to deal with portions of the combined signal corresponding to the first signal in the form of background noise.
18. 18. The apparatus according to claim 17, characterized in that the apparatus includes error correcting means for recovering lost information due to the processing of a part of the combined signal corresponding to the second signal in the form of pulse noise.
19. 19. The method according to claim 17, characterized in that the first and second signals share the same frequency band.
20. 20. An apparatus for receiving a combined signal including first and second transmitted signals that are combined with time, wherein the apparatus includes: a first receiver to receive the combined signal, wherein the first receiver includes: i) a first filter module for filtering the impulse noise from the received combined signal, parts of the signal corresponding to the second signal being processed as impulse noise through the filtering module; and ii) a first decoder for decoding information corresponding to the first signal coupled to the first filter module, the first decoder determining the value of the combined signal received in a first group of minimum transmission units; and a second receiver including: i) a second filter module for filtering the background noise of the received combined signal; and ii) a second decoder for decoding information corresponding to the second signal coupled to the second filter module, the second decoder determining the value of the combined signal received in the second group of minimum transmission units, a majority of the second group being included of minimum transmission units in the first group of transmission units.
21. 21. An apparatus for receiving a combined signal including first and second transmitted signals that are combined with time, wherein the apparatus includes: a second receiver to receive the combined signal and identify minimum transmission units in the combined signal that correspond to the second signal, the second receiver producing information that identifies the minimum transmission units identified that correspond to the second signal; and a first receiver for receiving the combined signal including the first receiver a decoder for decoding parts of the first combined signal corresponding to the first signal, the decoder receiving information identifying the minimum transmission units identified corresponding to the second signal, and discarding the minimum identified transmission units that correspond to the second signal.
22. 22. - The apparatus in accordance with the claim 21, characterized in that the identified units corresponding to the second signal, are in-phase and quadrature-tone components in times of transmission of different symbols.
23. 23. The apparatus according to claim 21, characterized in that the first receiver includes: error correction circuits for recovering the first lost signal information due to the scrapping of the identified transmission units corresponding to the second signal. R E S UME N First and second groups of information are transmitted, using a relatively large transmission block, which includes a plurality of minimum transmission units (MTUs), where each MTU corresponds to a unique combination of resources. A first group of said MTUs is used in the transport of said first group of information, the first group of information including at least a majority of said MTUs in the transmission block. A second group of said MTUs is defined, for example, selected, to be used in the transport of said second group of information, including the second group of MTUs, fewer MTUs than the first group and at least some MTUs included in the first group. . The first and second information groups communicate by transmitting at least some MTUs included in the first and second group of MTUs with the corresponding information modulated therein. The communication of the information can be through an overlap of the first and second information in the shared MTUs.