Intellectual Venture’s Bio-sensing Patents for Smartphones

Biometric sensing and authentication system such as Touch ID fingerprint scanner in iPhone 5S became one of the main features in major flagship smartphones (There is also a rumor that Samsung Galaxy S5 will equip with eye sensing Iris scanner).  TechIPm’s patent mining research for Intellectual Venture (IV)’s patent portfolios reveals that IV hold total of 33 patents issued in the U.S. relating to key biometric sensing technologies.

IV’s biometric sensing patents cover mostly fingerprint sensing technology. The patent portfolio also covers Iris sensing and face recognition technologies.  IV acquired most of patents from companies.  Only few patents were acquired from inventors and universities. Forward citations analysis shows that the biometric scanners in major smartphones may infringe several IV’s patents.

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Smartphone Patents for UI Key Technologies

To find the key IPR holders for the Smartphone UI (User Interface), a keyword search of the global patent data bases (USPTO, EPO, and WIPO (PCT)) has been performed.

As of April 23 2010, the key IPR holders and their IPR share for the Smartphone UI are as follows:

1. Patents for multi-touch technology (total of 120 patent applications and issued patents)

Apple (99, 82%), LG (3, 2%), Samsung (3, 2%), Hong Fu Jin Precision (2, 1%), and RIM (2, 1%)

2. Patents for optical joystick technology (total of 34 patent applications and issued patents) Philips (10, 29%), Samsung (8, 23%), Crucial Tec (5, 15%), and NXP B.V. (5, 15%)

3. Patents for projected capacitive touch screen technology (total of 213 patent applications and issued patents)

RIM (184, 86%), Sony Ericsson (6, 3%), 3M (6, 3%), and Nokia (3, 1%)


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LTE Products Competitor Analysis 2010 1Q

LTE patent portfolios are researched for US market leader among LTE product manufactures. To find the key IPR holders for the LTE patents, a keyword search of the USPTO patent data base has been performed. For completeness, patent data in the lists of patents declared essential to 3GPP LTE appear at the ETSI IPR Online website is also included.

As of April 10 2010, there were total of 1227 (786 patents from the ETSI IPR Online website and 441 patents form the keyword search) issued patents and published patent applications.

The key IPR holders and their IPR share for LTE patents are as follows:

1. LTE US Patent Landscape:
Qualcomm (318, 26%), InterDigital (194, 16%), LG (121, 10%), Nokia (107, 9%), Samsung (77, 6%), and Ericsson (64, 5%)

2. LTE US Patents for LTE Mobile Phone Products:
LG (121), Nokia (107), Samsung (77), and Motorola (31)

3. LTE US Patents for LTE Infrastructure Products:
Ericsson (64), Nortel (35), NEC (9), Alcatel-Lucent (7), NSN (7), and Huawei (4)

4. LTE US Patents for LTE Chipset Products:
Qualcomm (318), TI (30), Infineon (5), and Freescale Semiconductor (4)

5. LTE US Patents for LTE Information & Computing Products:
RIM (15), Sharp (10), Sony (6), Panasonic (1), and Toshiba (1)


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LTE-Advanced Global Patent Landscape 2010 1Q

3GPP’s LTE-Advanced is one of candidates for ITU-R's (International Telecommunication Union – Radio Communication) 4G mobile communication (IMT-Advanced) standards. The IMT-Advanced standards establishment is scheduled to be early 2011 through the expert evaluation process.

To find the key IPR holders for the LTE-Advanced, a keyword search of the global patent data bases (USPTO, EPO, and WIPO (PCT)) has been performed.

As of March 29 2010, the key IPR holders and their IPR share for the LTE-Advanced (total of 260 patent applications) are as follows:

1. Patent Landscape by Assignee's Country

USA (133, 55%), S. Korea (37, 15%), Finland (20, 8%), Sweden (16, 7%), Canada (7, 3%), and China (7, 3%)

2. Patent Landscape by Assignee

Qualcomm (101, 48%), LG (33, 16%), Ericsson (17, 8%), NSN (13, 6%), AT&T Mobility (12, 6%), and Nokia (9, 4%)

3. Patent Landscape by Technology

Relay technology for improving cell coverage and/or user throughput (96), SU-MIMO for improving spectrum usage efficiency (18), and Carrier Aggregation for flexible radio resource allocation (14)


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LTE Patent Landscape 2010 1Q

LTE Patent Landscape 2010 1Q analyzes the lists of patents declared essential to 3GPP LTE (4G Mobile Communications) appear at the ETSI IPR Online website (some of Motorola's essential patent candidates are indentified by a keyword search). The declared essential patent candidates include published patent applications and issued patents in the United States (USPTO) before March 1, 2010 (patent applications in pending are not included). Total of 786 declared essential patent candidates are used in the analysis.

Analysis for the top LTE IPR shareholders shows that Qualcomm (250, 32%) is the leader followed by InterDigital (147, 19%), Nokia (94, 12%), LG (73, 9%), and Samsung (67, 9%) as of Feb. 28, 2010.

LTE digital baseband for 3GPP standard specifications consists of two core parts: OFDM/MIMO Modem (TS36.211+TS36.213) and Channel Coder (TS36.212). Analysis for the top IPR shareholders for LTE baseband modem products shows that Qualcomm (144, 33%) is the leader followed by Samsung (63, 15%), Nokia (46, 11%), LG (34, 8%), and Nortel (33, 8%) as of Feb. 28, 2010.


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LTE Innovation Mining: Down Link MIMO Essential Patent (2)

Patent application publication US20080279301, entitled Multiple antennas transmit diversity scheme, is a candidate for LTE DL MIMO essential patent.

BACKGROUND

The scheme of diversity is widely used to combat the effect of fast fading by providing a receiver with multiple faded replicas of the same information-bearing signal. The schemes of diversity in general fall into the following categories: space, angle, polarization, field, frequency, time and multipath diversity. Space diversity can be achieved by using multiple transmit or receive antennas. The spatial separation between the multiple antennas is chosen so that the diversity branches, i.e., the signals transmitted from the multiple antennas, experience fading with little or no correlation. Transmit diversity, which is one type of space diversity, uses multiple transmission antennas to provide the receiver with multiple uncorrelated replicas of the same signal. Transmission diversity schemes can further be divided into open loop transmit diversity and closed-loop transmission diversity schemes. In the open loop transmit diversity approach no feedback is required from the receiver.

In one type of closed loop transmit diversity, a receiver knows an arrangement of transmission antennas, computes a phase and amplitude adjustment that should be applied at the transmitter antennas in order to maximize a power of the signal received at the receiver. In another arrangement of closed loop transmit diversity referred to as selection transmit diversity (STD), the receiver provides feedback information to the transmitter regarding which antenna(s) to be used for transmission.

An example of open-loop transmission diversity scheme is the Alamouti 2.times.1 space-time diversity scheme. The Alamouti 2.times.1 space-time diversity scheme contemplates transmitting a Alamouti 2.times.2 block code using two transmission antennas using either two time slots (i.e., Space Time Block Code (STBC) transmit diversity) or two frequency subcarriers (i.e., Space Frequency Block Code (SFBC) transmit diversity). One limitation of Alamouti 2.times.1 space-time diversity scheme is that this scheme can only be applied to two transmission antennas. In order to transmit data using four transmission antennas, a Frequency Switched Transmit Diversity (FSTD) or a Time Switched Transmit Diversity (TSTD) is combined with block codes.

PRIOR ART

In order to transmit data using four transmission antennas, a Frequency Switched Transmit Diversity (FSTD) or a Time Switched Transmit Diversity (TSTD) is combined with block codes.

The problem with combined SFBC+FSTD scheme and STBC+TSTD schemes is that only a fraction of the total transmission antennas and hence power amplifier capability is used for transmission in a given frequency or time resource. This is indicated by `0` elements in the SFBC+FSTD and STBC+TSTD matrix. When the transmit power on the non-zero elements in the matrix is increased, bursty interference is generated to the neighboring cells degrading system performance. Generally, bursty interference manifests itself when certain phases of a frequency hopping pattern incur more interference than other phases.

In the downlink reference signals mapping for four transmission antennas in the 3GPP LTE, the density on antenna ports 2 and 3 is half the density on antenna ports 0 and 1. This leads to weaker channel estimates on antenna ports 2 and 3 relative to channel estimates on antenna ports 0 and in conventional SFBC+FSTD scheme.

INVENTION

Embodiments of this invention propose to exchange the second and the third row of the conventional SFBC-FSTD matrix, thus resulting in new SFBC. By this operation, symbols S.sub.1 and S.sub.2 are transmitted over antennas ports 0 and 2 while symbols S.sub.3 and S.sub.4 are transmitted over antenna ports 1 and 3. This is useful for evening out pilot-density disparity inherent in the reference signal structure of the LTE system.

CLAIM

21. A method for data transmission, the method comprising the steps of:modulating data to be transmitted into four modulated symbols;generating an output matrix, the output matrix being established by: [ y ( 0 ) ( 4 ) y ( 1 ) ( 4 ) y ( 2 ) ( 4 ) y ( 3 ) ( 4 ) y ( 0 ) ( 4 + 1 ) y ( 1 ) ( 4 + 1 ) y ( 2 ) ( 4 + 1 ) y ( 3 ) ( 4 + 1 ) y ( 0 ) ( 4 + 2 ) y ( 1 ) ( 4 + 2 ) y ( 2 ) ( 4 + 2 ) y ( 3 ) ( 4 + 2 ) y ( 0 ) ( 4 + 3 ) y ( 1 ) ( 4 + 3 ) y ( 2 ) ( 4 + 3 ) y ( 3 ) ( 4 + 3 ) ] = [ 1 0 0 0 j 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - 1 0 0 0 j 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 j 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 - j 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 j 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - 1 0 0 0 j 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 j 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 - j 0 ] [ Re ( S 1 ( ) ) Re ( S 2 ( ) ) Re ( S 3 ( ) ) Re ( S 4 ( ) ) Im ( S 1 ( ) ) Im ( S 2 ( ) ) Im ( S 3 ( ) ) Im ( S 4 ( ) ) ] where S.sub.1(i), S.sub.2(i), S.sub.3(i) and S.sub.4(i) are the four modulated symbols transmitted on the subcarriers 4i, 4i+1, 4i+2 and 4i+3; andtransmitting the symbols in the output matrix via four antennas on four frequency subcarriers, with y.sup.(n)(m) in the output matrix being transmitted via an (n+1)-th antenna and an (m+1)-th subcarrier:

DL MIMO specification in 3GPP TS36.211, V890, Section 6.3.4.3 for precoding for transmit diversity


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LTE Innovation Mining: Down Link MIMO Essential Patent (1)

Patent application publication US20070274411, entitled SIGNAL GENERATION USING PHASE-SHIFT BASED PRE-CODING, is a candidate for LTE DL MIMO essential patent.

BACKGROUND

Information communication services have become more popular and with the introduction of various multimedia services and high quality services, there is an increased demand for enhanced wireless (radio) communication services. In order to actively meet such demands, the capacity and data transmission reliability of the communication system should be increased. To increase communication capacity in a wireless (radio) communication environment, one method would be to find newly usable bandwidth and another would be to improve the efficiency of given resources. As some examples of the latter method, multiple antenna transmitting/receiving (transceiving) techniques are recently gaining attention and being actively developed, whereby a plurality of antennas are provided at the transceiver in order to obtain diversity gain by additionally securing spatial domain for resource utilization, or increasing transmission capacity by transmitting data in parallel via each antenna. Among such multiple antenna transceving techniques, an example would be Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) system based on Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM).

PRIOR ART

Certain multi-carrier based wireless access techniques do not adequately support mobile communication systems with various types of antenna structures:

The space-time code (STC) technique, for a multiple antenna environment, relates to continuously (sequentially) transmitting the same signal, but in case of repetitive transmissions, transmitting through different antennas is performed, in order to obtain spatial diversity gain. Such space-time code technique has some shortcoming. For example, respectively different forms of space-time codes are required according to how the antenna structure changes, the transmitting side and receiving side have increased complexity because data symbols are repeatedly transmitted through a plurality of time slots in order to obtain spatial diversity, and has respectively lower performance compared to that of other closed-loop systems because data is transmitted without using feedback information.

Cyclic Delay Diversity (CDD) is a method in which frequency diversity gain is obtained at the receiving side, by using the antennas to respectively transmit signals with different delays or different magnitudes when transmitting OFDM signals in a system having multiple transceiving antennas. Upon separating and delivering the OFDM symbols to each antenna via a serial-to-parallel converter and a multiple antenna encoder, an Inverse Fast Fourier Transform (IFFT) for changing a frequency domain signal into a time domain signal and a cyclic prefix (CP) for minimizing interference between channels are added and transmitted to the receiving side. Here, the data sequence delivered to the first antenna is transmitted to the receiving side as is (i.e., without any changes), while the data sequence transmitted from other transmit antennas is delayed in cyclic shift manner when compared to a first antenna. By using the phase-shift diversity method, the flat fading channel may be changed to a frequency selectivity channel, and frequency diversity gain or frequency scheduling gain may be obtained according to a cyclic delay sample. However, despite some benefits of the above-described cyclic delay diversity scheme or phase-shift diversity scheme, because the spatial multiplexing rate is 1, the data transmission rate cannot be increased as desired.

The pre-coding scheme may include a codebook based pre-coding method used when there is a finite (or limited) amount of feedback information in a closed-loop system and may include a method of performing feedback upon quantization of channel information. Here, codebook based pre-coding refers to obtaining signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) gain by feeding back, to the transmitting side, an index of a pre-coding matrix that is already known by both the transmitting side and the receiving side. Such codebook based pre-coding scheme is beneficial in that effective data transmission is possible due to feedback of the index. However, because a stable channel is necessary, such codebook based pre-coding may not be fully appropriate for a mobile environment with severe channel changes. Also, some loss in the uplink transmission rate may occur due to the feedback overhead for the preceding matrix index. Additionally, because a codebook is needed in both the transmitting side and the receiving side, increased memory usage may be required.

The present invention recognized certain shortcomings related to certain multi-carrier based multiple antenna transmitting and/or receiving techniques. Based upon such recognition, several new features have been conceived to address and/or to solve such issues.

INVENTION

A phase-shift based pre-coding scheme used in a transmitting side and a receiving side that has less complexity than those of a space-time coding scheme, that can support various spatial multiplexing rates while maintaining the advantages of the phase-shift diversity scheme, that has less channel sensitivity than that of the pre-coding scheme, and that only requires a low capacity codebook has been conceived and provided herein. In particular, the matrix used for performing phase-shift based pre-coding can be more easily expanded and implemented according to any changes in the number of antennas being employed.

CLAIM

14. An apparatus to perform downlink baseband signal generation for a multiple antenna system with multiple antenna ports, the apparatus comprising: a layer mapper that performs layer mapping of complex-valued modulation symbols for each code word to be transmitted; a precoder that performs a precoding procedure on a first set of complex-valued modulation symbols received from the layer mapper to generate a second set of complex-valued modulation symbols to be mapped onto resources related to the antenna ports; and a transmitter that performs signal transmission via the antenna ports based upon the second set of complex-valued modulation symbols generated by the precoder. :

DL MIMO specification in 3GPP TS36.211, V890, Section 6.3 for general structure for downlink physical channels & Figure 6.3-1: Overview of physical channel processing.

26. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the preceding is performed according to y(i)=W(i)D(i)U(i).times.(i),where a pre-coding matrix W(i) has a size of P.times..upsilon., and D(i) is a diagonal matrix to support cyclic delay diversity, and a unitary matrix U(i) has a size of .upsilon..times..upsilon.. :

DL MIMO specification in 3GPP TS36.211, V890, Section 6.3.4.2.2 for precoding for large delay CDD


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LTE Innovation Mining: Down Link MIMO Standard

3GPP LTE standard TS36.211 specifies the down link MIMO (Multiple-Input Multiple-Output) in section 6.3. The specification defines the DL MIMO in two types: transmit diversity and spatial multiplexing.

The characteristics of DL MIMO are as follows:

1. Precoding for transmit diversity adopted SFBC (Space Frequency Block Coding) for two antenna ports and balanced SFBC-FTSD (Frequency Shift Transmit Diversity) for four antenna ports.

2. Special multiplexing is used for improving the peak data rates, cell capacity and throughput.

3. Maximum number of cordwords is limited to two, and 1-2 mapping is used for three layers case and 2-2 mapping is used for four layers case (rf. Table 6.3.3.2-1: Codeword-to-layer mapping for special multiplexing).

4. A set of precoding matrices known at the UE and BeNodeB is constructed, and a codebook method is adopted to reduce the overhead in channel state information feedback (rf. 6.3.3.2.3 Codebook for precoding).

5. The precoding for special multiplexing is defined by the precoding matrix [W], which is selected among the precoder elements in the codebook.

6. Large-delay CDD (Cyclic Delay Diversity), defined by matrix [D][U] (rf. Table 6.3.4.2.2-1: Large-delay cyclic delay diversity), can be used compositely with precoding: [W][D][U].


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LTE Innovation Mining: Down Link Synchronization Signals Essential Patent

Patent application publication US2009010312, entitled METHOD OF PERFORMING CELL SEARCH IN WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEM, is a candidate for LTE DL SSs essential patent.

BACKGROUND

The cell search is the procedure by which a user equipment (UE) acquires time and frequency synchronization with a cell and detects the cell identity of the cell. The initial cell is determined according to a location of the UE at a time when the power is supplied. In general, the initial cell indicates a cell of a base station (BS) corresponding to the greatest one of signal components of all BSs, which are included in a downlink reception signal of the UE.

To facilitate the cell search, a wireless system uses a downlink channel including a primary synchronization signal (PSS) and a secondary synchronization signal (SSS). The PSS is used to allow the UE to acquire slot synchronization. The SSS is used to allow the UE to acquire frame synchronization and a scrambling code group.

In general, cell search is classified into initial cell search, which is initially performed when a UE is powered on, and non-initial search which performs handover or neighbor cell measurement.

PRIOR ART

Wide code division multiple access (WCDMA) systems of the 3rd generation partnership project (3GPP) use a total of 512 long pseudo-noise (PN) scrambling codes in order to identify BSs. As a scrambling code of a downlink channel, each BS uses a different long PN scrambling code. When power is supplied to a UE, the UE performs downlink synchronization of a cell and acquires a long PN scrambling code identifier (ID) of the cell. To facilitate the cell search, a WCDMA system divides 512 long PN scrambling codes into 64 code groups.

In the WCDMA system, the cell search is accomplished in three steps. In the first step, a UE acquires slot synchronization by using a PSS including a primary synchronization code (PSC). A frame includes 15 slots, and each BS transmits the frame by including a PSC. Herein, the same PSC is used for the 15 slots, and all BSs use the same PSC. The UE acquires the slot synchronization by using a matched filter suitable for the PSC. In the second step, a long PN scrambling code group and frame synchronization are acquired by using the slot synchronization and also by using a SSS including a secondary synchronization code (SSC). In the third step, by using a common pilot channel code correlator on the basis of the frame synchronization and the long PN scrambling code group, the UE detects a long PN scrambling code ID corresponding to a long PN scrambling code used by the initial cell. That is, since 8 long PN scrambling codes are mapped to one long PN scrambling code group, the UE computes correlation values of all of the 8 long PN scrambling codes belonging to a code group of the UE. On the basis of the computation result, the UE detects the long PN scrambling code ID of the initial cell.

If errors occur while detecting the SSS, delay occurs when a UE performs cell search. Therefore, there is a need to improve channel detection performance in the cell search procedure.

INVENTION

Embodiments of the invention provide a method of performing cell search in a wireless communication system. A method is sought for improving detection performance by performing scrambling in such a manner that different scrambling codes are used for a secondary synchronization signal. A method is also sought for performing a reliable cell search by improving detection performance on the secondary synchronization signal.

The method includes acquiring an unique identity from the PSS, receiving SSS which is associated with a cell identity group, the SSS comprising two secondary synchronization codes (SSCs) and acquiring a cell identity which is defined by the unique identity within the cell identity group, wherein the two SSCs are respectively scrambled by using two different scrambling codes, the two SSCs are defined by m-sequences.

CLAIM

1. A method of performing cell search in a wireless communication system, the method comprising: receiving a primary synchronization signal (PSS) comprising a primary synchronization code (PSC); acquiring an unique identity from the PSS; receiving a secondary synchronization signal (SSS) which is associated with a cell identity group, the SSS comprising two secondary synchronization codes (SSCs); an acquiring a cell identity which is defined by the unique identity within the cell identity group, wherein the two SSCs are respectively scrambled by using two different scrambling codes, the two SSCs are defined by m-sequences generated by a generating polynomial x.sup.5+x.sup.2+1, and the two scrambling codes are defined by m-sequences generated by a generating polynomial x.sup.5+x.sup.3+1:

DL SSs specification in 3GPP TS36.211, V890, Section 6.11.2.1 for SSS sequence generation


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LTE Innovation Mining: Down Link Synchronization Signals Standard

3GPP LTE standard TS36.211 specifies the down link synchronization signals (DL SSs) in section 6.11. The specification defines the DL SSs in two types: primary synchronization signal (PSS) and secondary synchronization signal (SSS). DL SSs are needed to acquire frequency and time synchronization to a cell and determine the physical layer identity of the cell.

The structure and characteristics of the PSS and SSS are as follows:

1. PSS and SSS are transmitted in the central 6 RBs for all possible system bandwidth (6 - 110 RBs): PSS and SSS are each mapped to the central 62 subcarriers around the unused D.C. subcarrier.

2. DL SSs are transmitted twice per 10 ms radio frame (the two PSSs within a radio frame are identical in a given cell). For the FDD case, the PSS is located in the last symbol of the first slot of subframe of 0 and 5 and the SSS is located just prior to the PSS. For the TDD case, the PSS is located in the third symbol of subframe 1 and 6 and the SSS is located three symbols ahead of the PSS.

3. Three different PSS sequences are used for the cell identity in the group.

4. Three (root = 25, 29, 34) Zadoff-Chu sequences of length 63 (ZC(31) is not used for the D.C. subcarrier) are used for PSS.

5. Length 62 sequences of SSS are an interleaved concatenation of two length 31 BPSK-modulated binary codes (SSC1 and SSC2). The concatenated sequence (m-sequence) is scrambled with a scrambling sequence given by the PSS. The possible combination of SSC1 and SSC2 are 168, representing the physical layer cell identity group.


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LTE Innovation Mining: Down Link Reference Signals Essential Patent (1)

Patent application publication US20060285484,entitled Pilot Design and Channel Estimation, is a candidate for LTE DL RSs essential patent.

BACKGROUND

In an OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) based communication system, pilot symbols are transmitted in addition to data symbols to provide a reference for the receiver to estimate the channel medium and accordingly demodulate the received signal. OFDM systems periodically insert reference (or pilot) symbols that are known a priori, into the transmission signal. The receiver can thus estimate the channel response based on the received pilot symbols and the known transmitted pilot symbols. A pilot signal also referred to as reference signal is composed of the pilot symbols.

The DL pilot signal should provide effective performance for the following functions: Channel estimation at all possible operating carrier frequencies for all physical channels for all channel multi-path delay spreads (frequency selectivity) encountered in practice and for all UE speeds of interest; CQI measurement for link adaptation and channel-dependent scheduling; Sector identification of sector within the same cell; Measurements for cell search and handover.

PRIOR ART

Channel estimation is based on time and frequency interpolation among pilot sub-carriers in order to obtain the channel estimates at the position corresponding to data sub-carriers. In order to be able to perform frequency interpolation, the pilot sub-carrier spacing in the frequency domain should be smaller than the 50% correlation coherence bandwidth of the channel for all channels of interest. Similarly, in order to be able to perform time interpolation, the pilot sub-carrier spacing in the time domain should be smaller than the 50% coherence time of the channel at the operating carrier frequency for all UE speeds of interest.

There is a need for an improved pilot structure design in the prior arts in order to achieve accurate channel estimates for high user equipment (UE) speeds in mobile operations while also achieve the ability to use substantial pilot energy from succeeding TTI (Transmission Time Interval) with minimum latency.

INVENTION

Embodiments of the invention provide method and apparatus for generating a structure in a OFDM communication system having a transmitter with a least one transmitting antenna to achieve accurate channel estimates for high UE speeds and high channel frequency selectivity in mobile operations.

CLAIM

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the transmission time interval comprises of seven orthogonal frequency division multiplexing symbols and wherein the pilot signal from at least one transmitting antenna is located in the first and fifth OFDM symbols of a transmission time interval:

DL RSs specification for single antenna port in 3GPP TS36.211, V890, Section 6.10.12 & Figs 6.101.2-1

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the transmitter has at least two antennas, said method further comprising: locating a pilot signal from a second antenna into two orthogonal frequency division multiplexing symbols of said frame such that the pilot power of the pilot signal from the second antenna is in the first and fifth orthogonal frequency division multiplexing symbols of the transmission time interval:

DL RSs specification for two antenna ports in 3GPP TS36.211, V890, Section 6.10.12 & Figs 6.101.2-1

6. The method of claim 3, wherein the transmitter has at least four antennas, said method further comprising: locating a pilot signal from a third antenna into two orthogonal frequency division multiplexing symbols of said frame such that the pilot power of the pilot signal from the third antenna is in the second and sixth orthogonal frequency division multiplexing symbols of the transmission time interval; and locating a pilot signal from a fourth antenna into two orthogonal frequency division multiplexing symbols of said frame such that the pilot power of the pilot signal from the fourth antenna is in the second and sixth orthogonal frequency division multiplexing symbols of the transmission time interval:

DL RSs specification for four antenna ports in 3GPP TS36.211, V890, Section 6.10.12 & Figs 6.101.2-1


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LTE Innovation Mining: Down Link Reference Signals Standard (1)

3GPP LTE standard TS36.211 specifies the down link reference signals (DL RSs) in section 6.10. The specification defines the DL RSs in three types: Cell-specific reference signals, UE-specific reference signals, and MBSFN reference signals. DL RSs are needed to carry out coherent demodulation at UE through DL channel estimation.

The cell-specific RSs are available to all UEs in a cell and span the entire cell bandwidth. The structure and characteristics of the cell-specific RSs are as follows:

1. The OFDM symbols form a two-dimensional sequence (corresponds to one of 504 difference cell identities, NID_cell) and are arranged in a 'diamond shape' lattice structure to achieve the minimum interpolation errors for the channel estimation.

2. Considering the case of high channel frequency selectivity and high UE velocity, there are four reference symbols per RB (Resource Block) for optimal channel estimation.

3. There are six frequency shifts of the reference symbols corresponds to 84 different cell identities (the reference symbols are inserted within the first and the third from the last OFDM symbol for a given slot of RBs and staggered by three subcarriers relative to each other).

4. For the case of four antenna ports, the reference symbols of the second antenna port are shifted by three subcarriers with respect to the reference symbols of the first antenna port in each OFDM symbols. The reference symbols for the third and fourth antenna ports are located within the second OFDM symbols of each slot (two reference symbols per RB) to reduce the overhead in multiple channel estimations.

5. DL RSs are generated using QPSK modulation for low PAPR (Peak-to Average Power Ratio).


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NEC's LTE Business Strategy: Synergy with RFID

Recently NEC announced the launching of NEC CASIO Mobile Communication which is a strategic alliance in mobile equipment business among NEC, Casio, and Hitachi.

As NEC is one of major LTE equipment providers for NTT DoCoMo’s LTE business which is going to launch its commercial LTE service in the mid of 2010 and Casio and Hitachi is one of major LTE equipment providers for KDDI’s LTE business which plans to launch its commercial LTE service at the end of 2011, the combined company has a high chance of leading the LTE equipments market.

In recent LTE IPR research by TechIPm, NEC was a ‘Dark Horse’ in LTE IPR for the LTE baseband modem products (http://techipm-innovationfrontline.blogspot.com/2009/09/lte-patent-landscape-for-ofdmmimo.html). In addition to the LTE innovation, NEC+Hitachi were one of innovation leaders in RFID based on TechIPm’s research for RFID patent landscape (http://techipm-innovationfrontline.blogspot.com/2009/04/rfid-innovation-frontline-2009-1q_30.html).

This rare case of being an innovation leader both in LTE and RFID will definitely benefit to NEC’s future business in an LTE based emerging market - RFID assisted intelligent mobile health care services.


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Qualcomm's IPR Strategy

In interview with the Korea Times
(http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/tech/2009/05/133_44748.html), Qualcomm's Chairman and CEO Paul Jacobs expressed that Qualcomm's aims are to become Intel in mobile technologies.

Qualcomm's CDMA technology is now used in nearly all of the 2G and 3G networks globally. Patent portfolio for Qualcomm's CDMA technologies is the profit center from patent royalties and CDMA chips.

With the company's purchase of Flarion in 2005, Qualcomm is now holding the most competitive patent portfolios in OFDM and MIMO, which is the key 4G technologies used in LTE and WiMAX.

In TechIPm's patent landscape research for 4G mobile technologies, Qualcomm was the IPR leader in several areas: LTE essential patent candidates, Mobile WiMAX PCT publications, USPTO issued patents in MIMO technology, USPTO published patent applications for Femto Cell. (Refs. http://www.slideshare.net/alexglee/4gpatents-analysis2009q2brief; http://www.slideshare.net/alexglee/3gpplteessential-patents2009q2brief; http://techipm-innovationfrontline.blogspot.com/2009/07/mobile-patent-landscape-multi-national.html)

By building a strong partnership with the major mobile phone manufactures such as Samsung, LG, and Nokia, Qualcomm dreamed about the day when "Qualcomm Inside" is in front side of every future mobile phones.

©2009 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved

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LTE Patent Landscape: Multi-national IPR

Research for multi-national LTE IPR has been done by keyword search for WIPO's PCT applications.

PCT applications published before July 1, 2009 show that the multi-national IPR for LTE innovations is keep increasing as the standardization for LTE is in the final stage and commercial LTE services are scheduled from 2010 in several countries including US and Japan.

Analysis for top 20 LTE innovators shows that InterDigital is the leader followed by Qualcomm, Ericsson, Nokia, and NTT DoCoMo as of June 30, 2009.

As for the distribution of assignees’ country, the US (39%) is the leader followed by Japan (16%) and S. Korea (11%).


©2009 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved
http://www.techipm.com/

RFID Patent Landscape 1Q 2009

Since the United States is such a large market for products and services from nearly all technology innovations, a patent counting for growth in patenting over a period of times and distribution across technology areas can be a good measuring tool for monitoring the evolution of technology innovations.

This report analyzes the patents issued by USPTO before January 1, 2009.

Contents:

1. Number of Patents by Year


2. Number of Patents by Assignee


3. Number of Patents by Assignee’s Nationality


4. Number of Patents by USPC


5. Number of Patents by Forward Citation


6. Number of Patents by Assignee for Customized Classifications


Link: http://techipm-rfidipr.blogspot.com/


©2009 TechIPm, LLC All RightsReserved
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IP Multimedia Subsystem Patent Landscape 2Q 2009

The IPMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem) is a key technology for all IP networks delivering internet protocol multimedia services. IPMS (also called IMS) is the essential technology for LTE core networks.

Research for US patent applications published before May 1, 2009 shows that the IPMS technology got attention among telecommunication technology innovators starting from year 2004. It is expected that the IPMS innovation activities will be keep increasing over the next several years.

Analysis for Top 10 innovators shows that Samsung is the leader followed by Huawei and Lucent Technologies as of April 30, 2009.

©2009 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved

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Nanoelectronic Device Patent Landscape 2Q 2009

Analysis for nanoelectronic device patents issued by USPTO before May 1, 2009 shows that technology innovation activities for nanoelectronic device were keep increasing for the past 10 years.

Top 20 assignees analysis shows that Innovative Silicon is the leader followed by Progressant and KnowmTech, LLC.


©2009 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved
http://www.techipm.com/

RFID IPR: Patent Information Pool for RFID

"RFID IPR" is a blog site for patent information pool for RFID and related AutoID (Biometrics, NFC etc.) IPR: http://techipm-rfidipr.blogspot.com/

Each patent is linked to Google patent search for easy view and download. The site also provides information about RFID related standard, patent landscape, patent pool, and essential patent analysis.

©2009 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved
http://www.techipm.com/

RFID Patent Landscape for Market Leader: Intermec vs. Motorola

Research for RFID patents issued by USPTO before January 1, 2009 shows that Motorola, merged with Symbol appeared to be a strong contender in RFID market leader competitions.

In case of top assignee analysis shows that Micron Technology including Micron Communications is a leader in the RFID technology innovations followed by Intermec, IBM and Motorola.

A patent portfolio analysis of Intermec and Motorola shows that Intermec and Motorola have very similar portfolios. Detailed comparison shows that Intermec has relative competitive advantage in tag antenna and tag packing and Motorola has relative competitive advantage in reader design and tracking application solution.


©2009 TechIPm, LLC All Rights Reserved
http://www.techipm.com/