Method for realtime digital processing of communications signals

Abstract

In a communications or jamming system, accurate timing of the transmission of digitally processed signals is accomplished through the use of standard off-the-shelf components. In order to eliminate the need for high-cost, difficult to develop, specific digital hardware or realtime synchronous software not available from the standard off-the-shelf components, the output from the non-real time components is coupled to a realtime interface that assures nanosecond timing accuracy regardless of timing errors introduced by the off-the-shelf components. In one embodiment, the signals to be transmitted are digitized and then packetized, with the data to be transmitted reconstructed using non-real time digital processing. In order to establish the exact time for transmission, the packet is given a time stamp in the form of a header which indicates the exact time at which the packet is to be transmitted by the communications system, with the packet with header being transmitted to a storage buffer, the output of which is coupled to a realtime interface including a precise time output gate, the timing of which is controlled by a precision time reference having nano-second accuracy.

1 . A method for assuring the accurate timing of a packetized transmission, comprising the steps of:
 generating a packet of data having a header including a timestamp indicating the time that the packet is to be transmitted using a non-realtime off-the-shelf digital processor; and,   gating out the packet at a precise time for transmission in accordance with the timestamp using a realtime precision time reference, whereby timing errors associated with the generation of the packet by standard off-the-shelf digital processors do not affect the timing of the transmission of the packet.