US 11,889,311 B2
RF repeater and method for semantic-less retransmissions
Colin Fumito Funai, Lincolnwood, IL (US); and Laura Jane Poplawski Ma, Somerville, MA (US)
Assigned to Raytheon BBN Technologies Corp., Cambridge, MA (US)
Filed by Raytheon BBN Technologies Corp., Cambridge, MA (US)
Filed on Nov. 30, 2021, as Appl. No. 17/537,775.
Claims priority of provisional application 63/127,398, filed on Dec. 18, 2020.
Prior Publication US 2022/0201486 A1, Jun. 23, 2022
Int. Cl. H04W 72/541 (2023.01); H04W 12/088 (2021.01); H04W 12/02 (2009.01); H04W 12/06 (2021.01); H04B 7/155 (2006.01)
CPC H04W 12/088 (2021.01) [H04B 7/15507 (2013.01); H04W 12/02 (2013.01); H04W 12/06 (2013.01); H04W 72/541 (2023.01)] 17 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A radio-frequency (RF) repeater configured for semantic-less retransmissions, the RF repeater comprising:
processing circuitry; and memory,
wherein the processing circuitry is to:
perform physical (PHY) layer processing to identify one or more residual indicators present in a received RF signal; and
determine whether or not to retransmit the received RF signal based solely on the one or more residual indicators,
wherein the residual indicators result from an electromagnetic transmission of the received RF signal by a transmitter performing one or more of upconversion, modulation and amplification,
wherein the processing circuitry is to refrain from performing processing at any one or more logical layers higher than a PHY layer, including refraining from performing medium access control (MAC) layer processing to determine whether or not to retransmit the received RF signal,
wherein the processing circuitry is to:
authenticate the received RF signal based on one or more authentication features determined from the residual indicators;
determine, if the received RF signal is authenticated, whether or not to retransmit the received RF signal based on one or more retransmission features determined from the residual indicators; and
refrain from retransmitting the received RF signal when not authenticated,
wherein the one or more authentication features and the one or more retransmission features are stored in the memory.
 
11. A method for semantic-less retransmissions comprising:
performing physical (PHY) layer processing to identify one or more residual indicators present in a received RF signal; and
determining whether or not to retransmit the received RF signal based on the one or more residual indicators,
wherein the residual indicators result from an electromagnetic transmission of the received RF signal by a transmitter performing one or more of upconversion, modulation and amplification,
wherein the method further comprises:
refraining from performing processing at any one or more logical layers higher than a PHY layer, including refraining from performing medium access control (MAC) layer processing to determine whether or not to retransmit the received RF signal;
authenticating the received RF signal based on one or more authentication features determined from the residual indicators;
determining, if the received RF signal is authenticated, whether or not to retransmit the received RF signal based on one or more retransmission features determined from the residual indicators; and
refraining from retransmitting the received RF signal when not authenticated.
 
16. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium that stores instructions for execution by processing circuitry of an RF repeater configured for semantic-less retransmissions, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to:
perform physical (PHY) layer processing to identify one or more residual indicators present in of a received RF signal; and
determine whether or not to retransmit the received RF signal based on the one or more residual indicators,
wherein the residual indicators result from an electromagnetic transmission of the received RF signal by a transmitter performing one or more of upconversion, modulation and amplification,
wherein the processing circuitry is to:
refrain from performing processing at any one or more logical layers higher than a PHY layer, including refraining from performing medium access control (MAC) layer processing to determine whether or not to retransmit the received RF signal;
authenticate the received RF signal based on one or more authentication features determined from the residual indicators;
determine, if the received RF signal is authenticated, whether or not to retransmit the received RF signal based on one or more retransmission features determined from the residual indicators; and
refrain from retransmitting the received RF signal when not authenticated.