| abstract |
A two-way paging system includes one or more transmitters, a plurality of receivers, and at least one two-way personal paging unit or pager. The two-way pager receives pages from the transmitter, and sends response signals which are detected by the receivers. The response signals are in the form of digital packets, including forward error correction encoding and digital symbols that each consists of a predetermined number of bits. The receivers detecting the response signals decode the response packets to verify their accuracy and to identify the digital symbols. At the receivers, "accuracy indicators" can be associated with the detected symbols, providing an indication of the probability of accuracy. In one embodiment ("microdiversity receiver") two receiver components are provided at a single receiver site, with a separate antenna for each receiver component. Signals as received at the different components can be compared and have the accuracy indication information combined to increase the reliability of the system in detecting and decoding the pager response symbols. A central controller receives information from several receivers and similarly processes and analyzes it to determine the most likely response signal sent by a pager. |