A two step architecture for an adaptive receiver

The number of services on heterogeneous wireless networks is dramatically increasing. The main drawback of this explosion of services is that consumers need more and more terminals. Consequently there is a current and growing interest in multi-mode terminals (multi-services, multi-networks). Such terminals could be implemented using software techniques for terminal reconfiguration purposes. In this context, we propose a new receiver architecture, which consists of a wide band analysis in order to realize a blind identification of the systems in use based on the received signal. This interface is carried out by a "two step architecture". The proposed solution combines an analysis (first step) of the wide band signal sampled with a classical ADC (10 bits). This analysis is performed by powerful signal processing techniques and gives all the required information (i.e., identification of the standards, sub-channels, carrier frequencies and so on...) needed for the switching of the ADC on the desired narrow-band signal (second step). This second step offers the possibility of demodulating the system in use after reconfiguring the terminal with the right software. This solution could be carried out with today's technologies and will also be compatible with the future generic SWR architecture when the new ADC generation is available.