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Change the message bit decoder

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Change (and hopefully improve) the Message bit decoder.

When decoding bits, a "0" is encoded as (m[j]<m[j+1]), and a "1" is
(m[j]>m[j+1]) . However, there is a problem if mpj[ == m[j+1] because we
can't decide what it's supposed to be.

Antirez's original code defaults to a '1', and then lets the bit error
detection code sort it out. I *think* it's better to default to '0'
because it's more likely that noise added to the signal will produce a
spurious '1' rathar than anything subtracting from the signal to produce
a spurious '0'

Also, Antirez''s code only looks for errors in the first bit of the
message. I don't know why  this is.

There is a potential problem in deciding the message length if there are
any errors in the first 5 bits decoded, because this defines the message
type (the DF-??), and it's the DF that determines how many bits the
message shall contain.

If there is an error in the first 5 bits, then we could ignore the DF,
and continue decoding a long format (112 bits). However, for weak
signals, if the message is a short one (56 bits) this results in the
sigStrength decaying to the point where it's level drops below squelch,
so we discard a possibly decodeable 56bit

However, if we assume it's a short message, and only decode 56 bits, and
it's really a long message we won't have decoded all the bits.

Not sure what to do about this
This commit is contained in:
Malcolm Robb 2013-04-12 10:53:46 +01:00
parent ff697dbb51
commit 63622355e3
1 changed files with 25 additions and 34 deletions
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55
dump1090.c
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@ -57,6 +57,8 @@
#define MODES_ASYNC_BUF_SAMPLES (MODES_ASYNC_BUF_SIZE / 2) /* Each sample is 2 bytes */
#define MODES_AUTO_GAIN -100 /* Use automatic gain. */
#define MODES_MAX_GAIN 999999 /* Use max available gain. */
#define MODES_MSG_SQUELCH_LEVEL 0x02FF /* Average signal strength limit */
#define MODES_MSG_ENCODER_ERRS 3 /* Maximum number of encoding errors */
#define MODES_PREAMBLE_US 8 /* microseconds = bits */
#define MODES_PREAMBLE_SAMPLES (MODES_PREAMBLE_US * 2)
@ -1394,7 +1396,7 @@ void detectModeS(uint16_t *m, uint32_t mlen) {
* 9 -------------------
*/
for (j = 0; j < mlen; j++) {
int low, high, delta, i, errors;
int high, i, errors;
int good_message = 0;
uint16_t *pPreamble, *pPayload, *pPtr;
uint8_t theByte;
@ -1405,6 +1407,7 @@ void detectModeS(uint16_t *m, uint32_t mlen) {
if (!use_correction) // This is not a re-try with phase correction
{ // so try to find a new preamble
/* First check of relations between the first 10 samples
* representing a valid preamble. We don't even investigate further
* if this simple test is not passed. */
@ -1473,52 +1476,40 @@ void detectModeS(uint16_t *m, uint32_t mlen) {
theByte = 0;
errors = 0;
sigStrength = 0;
msglen = MODES_LONG_MSG_BITS;
for (i = 0; i < MODES_LONG_MSG_BITS; i++) {
low = *pPtr++;
high = *pPtr++;
delta = low-high;
if (delta < 0) delta = -delta;
for (i = 0; i < msglen; i++) {
uint32_t a = *pPtr++;
uint32_t b = *pPtr++;
if (i > 0 && delta < 256) {
if (theByte & 2)
{theByte |= 1;}
} else if (low == high) {
/* Checking if two adiacent samples have the same magnitude
* is an effective way to detect if it's just random noise
* that was detected as a valid preamble. */
theByte |= 2; /* error */
if (i < MODES_SHORT_MSG_BITS) errors++;
} else if (low > high) {
theByte |= 1;
}
if (a > b)
{sigStrength += (a-b); theByte |= 1;}
else if (a < b)
{sigStrength += (b-a); /*theByte |= 0;*/}
else //a == b,
{errors++; /*theByte |= 0;*/}
if (i < msglen) {
sigStrength += delta;
}
if ((i & 7) == 7)
{*pMsg++ = theByte;}
else if ((i == 4) /*&& (errors == 0) */)
{msglen = modesMessageLenByType(theByte);}
if (i == 4) {
msglen = modesMessageLenByType(theByte);
} else if ((i & 7) == 7) {
*pMsg++ = theByte;
}
theByte = theByte << 1;
if (errors > MODES_MSG_ENCODER_ERRS)
{break;}
}
/* Filter for an average delta of three is small enough to let almost
* every kind of message to pass, but high enough to filter some
* random noise. */
sigStrength /= msglen;
if (sigStrength < (5*255)) {
use_correction = 0;
continue;
}
/* If we reached this point, and error is zero, we are very likely
* with a Mode S message in our hands, but it may still be broken
* and CRC may not be correct. This is handled by the next layer. */
if (errors == 0 || (Modes.aggressive && errors < 3)) {
if ( (sigStrength > MODES_MSG_SQUELCH_LEVEL) && (errors <= MODES_MSG_ENCODER_ERRS) )
{
struct modesMessage mm;
/* Decode the received message and update statistics */