摘要:
A method of operating a delay circuit to impose a selected delay on an electronic signal the delay circuit comprising a plurality of delay stages and means for directing the electronic signal through selected ones of the delay stages, the method comprising the steps of: measuring the actual signal delay through each of the delay stages; and selecting, based on the signal delays obtained in the measuring step, the delay stages through which the electronic signal is directed.
摘要:
A system and method of scheduling RFID tag interrogations by a plurality of RFID readers so as to mitigate the effects of interference within an RFID environment in which the readers are deployed, and to enhance the efficiency and reliability of the overall RFID system. The system includes a plurality of RFID receivers for receiving RFID tag data, a plurality of RFID tag interrogators for transmitting RF interrogation signals for interrogating RFID tags, and a controller for providing to at least one interrogator, at least one receiver, and at least one tag, a parameter associated with operational characteristics of the interrogator, the receiver, and the tag, respectively. The interrogator, the receiver, and the tag are operative, in response to receipt of the respective parameter, to modify its operational characteristics in accordance with the respective parameter, thereby avoiding interference at the receivers and the tags.
摘要:
A system and method that facilitates the configuration and control of components of an RFID system, taking into account how the RFID system components are associated with one or more physical locations within an environment in which the RFID system is deployed. A user provides information specifying associations between the system components and the physical locations within the environment to obtain visual representations of configuration data generated therefrom with reference to a facility view, an RF coverage view, and a location view of the data. The facility view serves as a reference plane for placement and orientation of antennas associated with RFID readers, location benchmark tags, and the physical locations of interest. After each antenna is placed and oriented on the facility view, an estimate of the size and shape of the RF interrogation zone of each antenna is computed, and representations of the RF interrogation zones are provided on the facility view to obtain the RF coverage view of the data. Next, the user provides information specifying the physical locations of interest to obtain the location view of the data. A composite of the facility view, the coverage view, and the location view is then generated to obtain an enhanced visual understanding of how the system components and the physical locations exist within the system environment, and how the components and locations are associated with one another.
摘要:
A data communications system for conveying a series of input data symbols includes a transmitter subsystem and a receiver subsystem. The transmitter subsystem generates a series of composite waveforms corresponding to a series of input data symbols by selecting from a set of mutually orthogonal component waveforms, then combines contemporaneous portions of at least two of the component waveforms so as to form a composite waveform which is unique to the data symbol. The transmit subsystem uses the composite waveform to modulate a carrier signal and transmits the carrier signal over a communications channel. The receiver subsystem receives the carrier signal and recovers the composite waveform from the carrier signal. The receiver subsystem identifies the data symbol by, at least in part, decompositioning the composite waveforms into their constituent component waveforms so as to identify which composite waveforms have been transmitted.
摘要:
A system and method that facilitates the configuration and control of components of a radio frequency identification (RFID) system, taking into account how the RFID system components are associated with one or more physical locations within an environment in which the RFID system is deployed. The RFID system can be controlled by obtaining a representation of the physical space. Next, at least one region of interest is specified in the representation of the physical space. An interrogation zone is then specified in the representation of the physical space, in which the interrogation zone corresponds to the data reader. Next, at least one overlap region of the interrogation zone and the region of interest is specified. Information is then stored, including the representation, and the interest region, the interrogation zone, and/or the overlap region. Operation of the data reader is controlled as a function of the stored information.
摘要:
An apparatus that improves Built-In-Self-Test (BIST) flexibility. A compilable address magnitude comparator facilitates BIST testing of different size memory arrays without requiring customization of the BIST controller. The compilable address magnitude comparator is compiled within the compilable memory arrays of the ASIC to allow a single BIST controller to test multiple sizes of memory arrays without requiring that the BIST controller be compilable. The compilable magnitude address comparator overrides the self-test signal from the BIST when the BIST attempts to test addresses not existing in the memory. The BIST is prevented from writing to addresses that do not exist, and does not receive error signals from those addresses. The BIST controller is able to test memory arrays without regard for their particular size. A single BIST controller can be used to test multiple memory arrays of different sizes in the ASIC, reducing device complexity.
摘要:
An apparatus and method for communicating data between at least two data devices, suitable for use as a wireless local-area network, that provides robust data communication via a radio communications channel corrupted by multipath interference, particularly at high data rates. A preferred embodiment of the invention represents data as a sequence of Walsh-function waveforms encoded by pseudo-noise direct-sequence spread-spectrum modulation. Walsh-function-encoding of the data provides a long symbol duration, thereby allowing the spread-spectrum modulation to provide processing gain sufficient to substantially overcome multipath interference, while providing a high data rate. In another preferred embodiment, Walsh-function modulation is supplemented with various forms of phase modulation, such as coherent PSK for bi-orthogonal signalling, and DPSK between orthogonal symbols for noncoherent bi-orthogonal signalling, thereby further increasing data rate without reducing processing gain. In another preferred embodiment, Walsh-function modulation is supplemented with spectral shaping to allow increased bandwidth occupancy, thereby further increasing the processing gain without sacrificing data rate.