Subsignal transmitting system.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

(1) Field of the Invention

0001The present invention relates to a digital radio communication system utilizing a multi-value QAM modulation system, and more particulary to a subsignal transmission system.

(2) Description of the Related Art

0002In a digital radio communication system, one or more protection lines are provided to correpond to a plurality of working lines to prevent deterioration of a transmitted signal due to fading or equipment fault. To switch from one of the working lines to the protection line subsignals such as a control signal superimposed on one of the working lines are used.

0003Currently, radio communications are effected so frequently that it has been an important goal to improve the utilization rate of frequencies within a predetermined frequency band. One of the techniques to improve the utilization efficiency is to use additional signals in the subsignals such as orderwire signals or way side signals which are also superimposed on one of the working lines.

0004Conventionally, these subsignals are superimposed on only one of the working lines. On the other working lines, dummy signals having no meaning are superimposed.

0005However, from the viewpoint of improving the efficiency of utilization of the limited frequency band, it is further required to superimpose subsignals on the other working lines. Although the number of channels for the subsignals is very small in comparison with that of the main signals so that the amount of data which can be transmitted through the subsignal channels is small, the additional signals can be advantageously transmitted between short distances.

0006A system having the features of the preamble of claim 1 is known from EP-A-0 246 619.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

0007An object of the present invention is to effectively utilize predetermined frequency bands by providing a subsignal transmitting system in which separate subsignals are superimposed on main signals transmitting through two or more working lines and switching means is provided for switching not only the main signal but also the subsignals when the line is switched.

0008To attain the above object, according to the present invention, there is provided a subsignal transmitting system having a plurality of working lines for respectively transmitting multiplexed signals each including a main signal, and having at least one protection line for transmitting one of said multiplexed signals when it is detected that the transmitting condition of one of said working lines along which said signals is being transmitted are deteriorated;    wherein each of said multiplexed signals includes a subsignal multiplexed with said main signal;    said subsignal transmitting system comprising:       a plurality of subsignal input terminals for respectively receiving input subsignals; and       a plurality of subsignal output terminals for respectively outputting subsignals transmitted through said working lines or said protection line; characterized by       a switching signal transmission line for transmitting, in the direction opposite to the transmission of said multiplexed signals, a switching signal indicating which one of said working lines is deteriorated for transmission of the corresponding multiplexed signal;       transmitting side subsignal switching means, operatively connected to said subsignal input terminals, for outputting one of said input subsignals to one of said working lines respectively and for outputting, in response to said switching signal one of said input subsignals to said protection line; and       receiving side subsignal switching means, operatively connected to said subsignal output terminals, for outputting said subsignal through said protection line to, in response to said switching signal, the corresponding one of said subsignal output terminals, the remaining subsignals through said working lines being output to the remaining output terminals, respectively.

0009The switching signal transmission line is preferably an opposite direction protection line for transmitting an opposite-direction multiplexed signal including an opposite-direction main signal and an opposite-direction subsignal. The switching signal is included in the opposite-direction subsignal.

0010The subsignals preferably include switching signals each indicating whether the corresponding one of the working lines is deteriorated for transmission of the corresponding multiplexed signal.

0011The subsignals may further include orderwire signals, and way side signals.

0012The system preferably further comprises a transmitting side main signal switching unit having a plurality of main signal input terminals and a plurality of output terminals operatively connected to the input sides of the plurality of working lines and the protection line; for connecting the main signal input terminals to the input sides of the working lines respectively and for selectively connecting, in response to the switching signal, the corresponding one of the main signals to the input side of the protection line; and a receiving side main signal switching unit having a plurality of main signal output terminals, for connecting, in response to the switching signal, the output sides of the working lines except for the deteriorated working line to the corresponding main signal output terminals and for selectively connecting, in response to the switching signal, the output side of the protection line to the corresponding main signal output terminal.

0013The system may further comprise transmitting terminal equipment, operatively connected to the transmitting side switching unit, for inserting the input subsignals into the main signals to form and transmit the multiplexed signals; a receiving terminal equipment unit, operatively connected to the receiving side switching unit, for dropping the subsignals from the multiplexed signals to output the output main signals and the output subsignals; and at least one intermediate repeater unit, operatively connected between the transmitting terminal equipment unit and the receiving terminal equipment, for dropping necessary subsignals from the multiplexed signals and for inserting necessary subsignals into the multiplexed signals.

0014The transmitting side subsignal switching unit may comprise: a switching signal detecting unit, operatively connected to the switching signal transmission line, for detecting the switching signal; and a first subsignal selecting unit, operatively connected to the switching signal detecting unit and to the subsignal input terminals, for selecting, in response to the detected switching signal, a subsignal corresponding to the deteriorated working line to be inserted into the protection line.

0015The receiving side subsignal switching unit may comprise: a plurality of subsignal selecting units, provided to respectively correspond to the plurality of working lines and operatively connected to the plurality of working lines, to the protection line and to the output subsignal terminals, for selecting, in response to the switching signal from the receiving side switching unit, the subsignals from the working lines or from the protection line.

0016The system preferably further ccmprises intermediate switching signal detecting unit, operatively connected to the switching signal transmission line (D-D), for detecting the switching signal; a plurality of dropping subsignal selecting units, provided to respectively correspond to the plurality of working lines and connected to the intermediate switching signal detecting unit, for selectively dropping, in response to the switching signal from the intermediate switching signal detecting unit, subsignals from the working lines or from the protection line; and an inserting subsignal selecting unit, operatively connected to the intermediate switching signal detecting unit and to the protection line, for selectively inserting, in response to the switching signal from the intermediate switching signal detecting unit, one of the input subsignals into the protection line.

0017The transmitting terminal equipment unit may comprise, corresponding to each of the working lines, data service channel units for multiplexing the corresponding input main signal with the corresponding input subsignal to form a multiplexed signal, and a transmitter for transmitting the multiplexed signal to the corresponding working line, and comprises, corresponding to the protection line, a data service channel unit for multiplexing the selected main signal with the selected subsignal.

0018The intermediate repeater unit preferably comprises, corresponding to each of the working lines and the protection line, a reciver for receiving the multiplexed signal from the corresponding transmitter, a data service channel unit for dropping the subsignal from the multiplexed signal output from the receiver and for inserting an input subsignal into the corresponding working line, and a transmitter for transmitting the multiplexed signal from the data service channel unit to the corresponding working line.

0019The receiving terminal equipment unit preferably comprises, corresponding to each of the working lines and the protection line, a receiver for receiving the multiplexed signal from the corresponding transmitter in the intermediate repeater unit, and a data service channel unit for dropping the subsignal from the multiplexed signal output from the receiver.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

0020The above object and features of the present invention will be more apparent from the following description of the preferred embodiments with reference to the drawings, wherein: <ul id="ul0001" list-style="none"><li>Figure 1 is a block diagram showing a conventional subsignal transmitting system;</li><li>Fig. 2 is a block diagram showing a subsignal transmitting system according to an embodiment of the present invention;</li><li>Fig. 3 is a diagram showing an example of the switching signal utilized in the embodiment shown in Fig. 2;</li><li>Fig. 4A is a block diagram showing a switching signal detecting circuit shown in Fig. 2;</li><li>Fig. 4B is a diagram showing respective signals at respective parts in the circuit shown in Fig. 4A;</li><li>Fig. 5A is a block diagram showing a selecting circuit shown in Fig. 2, and</li><li>Fig. 5B is a table diagram showing the relation between the input switching signal and an output of the circuit of Fig. 5A.</li></ul>

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

0021For better understanding of the present invention, a conventional digital radio communication system will first be described with reference to Fig. 1.

0022In Fig. 1, 411 and 412 are switching circuits for switching lines when the quality of transmitting signals is deteriorated, 15 to 26 are data service channel units (hereinafter referred to as DSC), 27 to 34 are transmitters, 35 to 42 are receivers, A and B are working lines( in the figure, only two working lines are shown for the sake of simplicity), C is an up-word protection line, D is a down-word protection line ( note that the down-word working line is not shown in the figure for the sake of simplicity), a is a main signal transmitted through the working line A, b is a main signal transmitted through the working line B, c is an input subsignal, and c′ is an output subsignal. Also, 1 is transmitting side terminal equipment, 2 is an intermediate repeater, and 3 is receiving side terminal equipment.

0023In operation, the main signals a and b are transmitted through the working lines A and B. The DSC 15 and 16 multiplex the subsignal c with the main signal to transmit the multiplexed signal. The multiplexed subsignal is included in service channels in the multiplexed signals. Thus, through the protection line C, the same subsignal as that multiplexed with the main signal a is transmitted in parallel with the working line A. Through the working line B, no subsignal is superimposed.

0024At the intermediate repeaters, the receivers 35 to 37 receive the decayed signals to demodulate, regenerate and remodulate, and then transmit them by the transmitters 30 to 32. At this time, the DSCs 18 and 19 drop the subsignal from the multiplexed signal including the main signal a and the subsignal c, and then the modified subsignal or the same subsignal is again inserted into the working line A and the protection line C. The drop and insert process is necessary because the subsignal consists of additional signals such as an orderwire signal, way side signal, and the like which are necessary in the intermediate repeaters, in addition to the switching signal which is transmitted when the quality of the signal on the working line is deteriorated. The orderwire signal is a communication signal between the terminal equipment and an intermediate repeater or between intermediate repeaters. The way side signal is a signal which is transmitted with the main signal.

0025The additional signal is used by a person who deals with this radio communication or is lent to a specified client since it is possible and useful in short distance communication between terminal equipment and an intermediate repeater or between intermediate repeaters. The signals transmitted through the intermediate repeaters are received by receivers 38 to 40 in the receiving side terminal equipment 3. At this time, the subsignals are dropped by the DSCs 21 to 23 at the receiving side terminal equipment.

0026When the quality of the main signal a or b transmitted through the working lines A or B is deteriorated due to fading or faults in the equipment, a switching signal is transmitted from the receiving terminal equipment to the transmitting teminal equipment so that the frequency band being utilized is switched from the working line A or B to the protection line C.

0027Thus, the deterioration of the quality of the communication signal can be prevented.

0028As will be seen from the above description of the conventional radio communication system, conventionally , the subsignal is transmitted through only a single working line A and a protection line C. Through the other working line B, a dummy signal is superimposed on the main signal b in place of the subsignal. The dummy signal has no meaning. This is because the one working line and the protection line C are sufficient to superimpose the switching signal or the orderwire signal to carry out their functions.

0029Currently, however, radio communications are effected so frequently that it has been an important subject to improve the rate of utilization of the frequencies within predetermined frequency bands. From the viewpoint of effectively utilizing the limited frequency bands, the additional signals in the subsignal may be used to transmit through not only the single working line A but also through the other working lines for communications. If all of the n working lines ( here the number n is a natural number) can convey the subsignals, and when the number of channels for the additional signals in one working line is m, then n x m channels can be used for additional communications.

0030If, however, subsignals are transmitted through the working line B , the subsignals should also be switched from'the working line B of the protection line C simultaneously with the switching of the main signal b from the working line B to the protection line C, when the signal is deteriorated.

0031Figure 2 is a block diagram showing a subsignal transmitting system according to an embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, 211 and 212 are switching circuits, 9 to 14 are selecting circuits, 6 and 7 are switching signal detecting circuits, a and b are main signals applied to main signal input terminals IM1 and IM2, c and d are input subsignals applied to subsignal input terminals IS1 and IS2, and c′ and d′ are output subsignals. OM1 and OM2 are main signal output terminals; and OS1 to OS2 are subsignal output terminals. For the sake of simplicity, only two working lines and one intermediate repeater are shown; however, there may be more working lines and more intermediate repeaters.

0032In a normal state, the main signals a and b and the subsignals c and d corresponding to the working lines A and B are transmitted through the working lines A and B respectively, and the selecting circuit 9 selects one of the subsignals for example c in this embodiment. The selected subsignal c is sent to the DSC 15 in which the subsignal c is superimposed on the main signal, for example A in this case, transmitted through the protection line C. The transmitters 27 and 28 transmit the same signal including the main signal a and the subsignal c. The transmitter 29 on the working line B transmits the signal including the main signal b and the subsignal d.

0033At the intermediate repeater 2, the subsignals c are dropped from the superimposed signals on the protection line C and the working line A by means of the DSCs 18 and 19. The selecting circuit 10 selects the subsignal c dropped from the DSC 19 when the working line A is used, so as to output the output subsignal c′. When the protection line C is used in place of the working line A, the selecting circuit 10 selects the subsignal c dropped from the DSC 18, so as to output the output subsignal c′. The selecting circuit 11 selects the subsignal d dropped from the working line B when the working line B is used, so as to output the output subsignal d′. When the protection line C is used in place of the working line B, the selecting circuit 11 selects the subsignal d dropped from the DSC 18, so as to output the output subsignal d′. The input subsignals c and d are inserted into the main signals A and B at the DSCs 19 and 20. The selecting circuit 12 selects one of the input subsignals c and d to be inserted into the main signal transmitting through the protection line C depending on whether the working line A or the working line B is switched to the protection line C. The transmitters 30 to 32 transmit the signals with the superimposed subsignals to the receiving terminal equipment 3. At the receiving terminal equipment 3, the receivers 38 to 40 receive the signals transmitting through the respective lines, and the DSC's 21 to 23 drop the respective subsignals. The selecting circuit 13 selects one of the subsignals d from the DSC 23 or from the DSC 21 depending on whether the working line B is used or the protection line C is used in place of the working line B to output the output subsignal d'. The selecting circuit 14 selects one of the subsignals c from the DSC 22 or from the DSC 21 depending on whether the working line A is used or the protection line C is used in place of the working line A to output the output subsignal c′.

0034Here, in the situation that the working lines A and B are used, assume that the quality of the signal transmitting through the working line B is deteriorated. Then, at the receiving terminal equipment 3, the deterioration of the signal transmitting through the working line B is recognized. The switching circuit 212 then transmits a switching signal to instruct switching from the working line B to the protection line C. The switching signal is included in the subsignal which is to be sent through the down-word protection line D. An example of the pattern of the switching signal will be illustrated later. In response to the switching signal, the transmitting terminal equipment 1 and the receiving terminal equipment 3 switch the signal transmitted from the working line B to the protection line C so as to transmit the main signal b through the protection line C. Simultaneously with this, at the transmitting terminal equipment 1, the switching signal detecting circuit 6 detects the switching signal from the superimposed signal transmitting through the down-word protection line D. In response to the detected switching signal, the switching signal detecting circuit 6 recognizes that the working line B should be switched to the protection line C, and based on that recognition, the switching signal detecting circuit 6 outputs a selecting signal to the selecting circuit (SEL) 9. The selecting signal indicates that the subsignal d should be sent to the protection line C. In response to the selecting signal, the selecting circuit 9 selects the subsignal d and sends it to the protection line C.

0035At the intermediate repeater 2 also, the switching signal detecting circuit 7 detects the switching signal from the subsignal transmitting through the down-word protection line D. In response to the detected switching signal, the switching signal detecting circuit 7 also recognizes that the working line B should be switched to the protection line C so as to output selecting signals to the selecting circuits (SEL) 10 and 11. The selecting signal applied to the selecting circuit 10 indicates that the subsignal c dropped from the DSC 19 on the working line A should be selected to be output as the output subsignal c′ and the subsignal d dropped from the DSC 18 on the protection line C should not be output. The selecting signal applied to the selecting circuit 11 indicates that the subsignal d dropped from the DSC 18 on the protection line C should be selected to be output as the output subsignal d′ and the subsignal d dropped from the DSC 20 on the deteriorated working line B should not be output. The selecting signal applied to the selecting circuit 12 indicates that the input subsignal d should be inserted into the signal transmitting through the protection line C. The transmitters 30 to 32 transmit the multiplexed signals to the receiving terminal equipment 3.

0036In the receiving terminal equipment 3, the selecting circuits 13 and 14 receive a selecting signal directly from the switching circuit 212. In response to the selecting signal, the selecting circuit 13 selects the subsignal d dropped from the DSC 21 on the protection line C and does not select the subsignal d dropped from the DSC 23 on the deteriorated working line B. The selecting circuit 14 selects, in response to the selecting signal from the switching circuit 212, the subsignal c dropped from the DSC 22 on the working line A and does not select the subsignal d dropped from the DSC 21 on the protection line C.

0037As a result of the above-described operation, when the working line B is switched to the protection line C, the subsignal on the working line B is also switched to the protection line C.

0038Next, an example of the switching signal is described. Figure 3 shows an example of the subsignal. As shown in the figure, the subsignal consists of 8 bits in each frame. The upper most bit in each frame is used as a part of the switching signal. As an example, the switching signal consists of four upper most bits L, M, N, and O. Thus, the pattern of the switching signal is repeated every four frames. The combination of the bits L, M, N, and O represents a signal pattern of the switching signal. For example, the combination 1001 is assumed to represent an instruction to switch from the working line B to the protection line C. The selecting circuits 9 to 14 have predetermined logics so that, when the selecting circuts receive this pattern, they select the subsignal d to be inserted or to be dropped into or from the protection line C.

0039Figure 4A is a block diagram showing an example of the constitution of the switching signal detecting circuit 6 or 7 shown in Fig. 2. In the figure, the switching signal detecting circuit consists of a switching bit extracting unit 400 and a serial-to-parallel converter 401. The switching bit extracting circuit 400 extracts the switching bit series (c) from the input subsignal series (a) in response to a switching bit extracting clock signal CL (b). The serial-to-parallel converter 401 converts the extracted switching bit series into parallel signals OUT1 to OUT4 (d).

0040Figure 4B shows the respective signals at respective parts in the switching signal detecting circuit. In the figure, as shown in (a), the subsignal series includes the switching signals A, B, C, ... in every upper-most bit of the eight bits. The switching bit extracting clock signal CL is synchronous with the switching signals. Thus, at the output of the circuit 400, the switching bit series (c) is obtained. The circuit 401 converts the serial data (c) into the parallel output bits (d) as four parallel bits OUT1 to OUT4.

0041Figure 5A is a block diagram showing an example of the constitution of one of the selecting circuits 9 to 14 shown in Fig. 2. In the figure, the selecting circuit consists of a first selector (SEL1) 500 for receiving the subsignal c consisting of bits IN1 to IN8 and for selecting one of the 8 bits to be output in response to the lower 3 bits c1, c2, and c3 of the switching signal, a second selector (SEL2) 501 for receiving the subsignal d consisting of 8 bits IN9 to IN16 and for selecting one of the 8 bits to be output in response to the lower 3 bits c1, c2, and c3 of the switching signal, and a third selector (SEL3) 502 for selecting either one of the outputs from the first and the second selectors 500 and 501 in response to the upper-most bit c4 of the switching signal.

0042Figure 5B is a table diagram showing the relation between the input switching signal and the selected output at the output terminal OUT of the third selector ("SEL3") 502. In the figure, H represents the logical high level and L represents the logical low level. For example, when the switching signals cl to c4 are L,L,L,H, then the output bit from the selector 502 is IN1 in the subsignal c. For the other combinations, the selected output bits will be easily understood from the table in Fig. 5B.

0043From the foregoing description, it will be apparent that, according to the present invention, predetermined frequency bands can be effectively utilized by providing a subsignal transmitting system in which separate subsignals are superimposed on main signals transmitting through two or more working lines and switching means is provided for switching not only the main signal but also the subsignals when the line is switched. Accordingly, the area where dummy bits are conventionally inserted can effectively be used for transmitting subsignals.

0044The present invention is not restricted to the above-described embodiment but various modifications are possible without departing from the scope of the claims of the present invention. For example, it is possible to superimpose the separate subsignals on any number of the working lines.

0045Reference signs in the claims are intended for better understanding and shall not limit the claims.