Direct communicative coupling of a radio source to a remote unit for exchanging communications services with a distributed communications system (DCS)

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10020885-B2
Application number	US-201615278779-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 28, 2016
Priority date	Sep 30, 2015
Publication date	Jul 10, 2018
Grant date	Jul 10, 2018

Abstract

Direct communicative coupling of a base station(s) to a remote unit for exchanging communications services with a distributed communications system (DCS) is disclosed. For example, the remote unit may include a remote antenna unit that is provided in a distributed antenna system (DAS) as one type of DCS. In this manner, the remote unit can facilitate distribution of communications services from a base station into the DCS at locations other than at a centralized location in the DCS, such as at a central unit or head-end equipment. Various DCS configurations are possible that include a remote unit supporting the direct communicatively coupling to a base station(s) for distributing communications services in a DCS.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A distributed communications system, comprising:
a central unit configured to receive downlink communications signals from at least one radio source and distribute the downlink communications signals to be received by a plurality of remote units, and receive uplink communications signals received by the plurality of remote units;
each of the plurality of remote units configured to receive the downlink communications signals and distribute the downlink communications signals to at least one client device, and receive uplink communications signals from the at least one client device and distribute the received uplink communications signals to be received by the central unit; and
one or more radio source remote units among the plurality of remote units each configured to:
receive remote downlink communications signals from at least one remote radio source directly communicatively coupled to the one or more radio source remote units;
distribute the remote downlink communications signals to at least one client device;
distribute the remote downlink communications signals to be received by at least one other remote unit among the plurality of remote units;
distribute the uplink communications signals received from the at least one client device to the at least one remote radio source; and
distribute the uplink communications signals received by at least one other remote unit among the plurality of remote units to the at least one remote radio source.

2. The distributed communications system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more radio source remote units is configured to be physically connected to the at least one remote radio source by a wired communications medium.

3. The distributed communications system of claim 2 , wherein the one or more radio source remote units is configured to be directly physically connected to the wired communications medium directly physically connected to the at least one remote radio source.

4. The distributed communications system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more radio source remote units is configured to be wirelessly connected to the at least one remote radio source.

5. The distributed communications system of claim 1 , wherein:
the central unit is configured to distribute the downlink communications signals directly to the plurality of remote units, and receive uplink communications signals directly from the plurality of remote units;
each of the plurality of remote units is configured to receive the downlink communications signals directly from the central unit and distribute the downlink communications signals to at least one client device, and receive uplink communications signals from the at least one client device and distribute the received uplink communications signals directly to the central unit; and
the one or more radio source remote units among the plurality of remote units is configured to:
distribute the remote downlink communications signals directly to the central unit; and
distribute the uplink communications signals received directly from the central unit to the at least one remote radio source.

6. The distributed communications system of claim 5 , wherein the one or more radio source remote units each comprise:
a client device input interface configured to distribute the downlink communications signals and the remote downlink communications signals to the at least one client device;
a client device output interface configured to receive the uplink communications signals from one or more upstream remote units;
a remote input interface configured to receive the remote downlink communications signals from the at least one remote radio source;
a remote output interface configured to receive the uplink communications signals from the at least one client device;
a central input interface configured to receive the downlink communications signals from the central unit; and
a central output interface configured to receive the uplink communications signals from the at least one client device and the remote downlink communications signals from the at least one remote radio source to be distributed to the central unit.

7. The distributed communications system of claim 5 , wherein the one or more radio source remote units each comprise at least one band circuit configured to:
receive the downlink communications signals to be distributed to the at least one client device;
filter the received downlink communications signals to at least one radio-frequency (RF) band;
receive the remote downlink communications signals to be distributed to the at least one client device;
filter the received remote downlink communications signals to at least one RF band;
receive the uplink communications signals from at least one client device; and
filter the received uplink communications signals to at least one RF band.

8. The distributed communications system of claim 1 , wherein:
the central unit is configured to distribute the downlink communications signals to one or more upstream remote units among the plurality of remote units, and receive upstream uplink communications signals from the one or more upstream remote units;
one or more downstream remote units among the plurality of remote units are each configured to:
receive the downlink communications signals from the one or more upstream remote units and distribute the downlink communications signals to at least one client device; and
receive the uplink communications signals from the at least one client device and distribute the received uplink communications signals to the one or more upstream remote units; and

the one or more radio source remote units among the plurality of remote units each configured to:
receive upstream downlink communications signals from the one or more upstream remote units and distribute the upstream downlink communications signals to at least one client device;
distribute the uplink communications signals as upstream uplink communications signals to the one or more upstream remote units;
receive downstream downlink communications signals from the one or more downstream remote units and distribute the downstream downlink communications signals to at least one client device; and
distribute the uplink communications signals as downstream uplink communications signals to the one or more downstream remote units.

9. The distributed communications system of claim 8 , wherein the one or more radio source remote units each comprise:
an upstream input interface configured to receive the upstream downlink communications signals from the one or more upstream remote units;
a client device output interface configured to distribute the upstream downlink communications signals and distribute the downstream downlink communications signals to at least one client device;
a client device input interface configured to receive the uplink communications signals from the at least one client device;
an upstream output interface configured to distribute the uplink communications signals as upstream uplink communications signals to the one or more upstream remote units;
a downstream input interface configured to receive downstream downlink communications signals from the one or more downstream remote units; and
a downstream output interface configured to distribute the downstream uplink communications signals to the one or more downstream remote units.

10. The distributed communications system of claim 9 , wherein the one or more radio source remote units are each configured to:
distribute the received uplink communications signals from the at least one client device to the at least one remote radio source;
distribute the received upstream uplink communications s

Assignees

• Corning Optical Communications Wireless Ltd

Inventors

• Mizrahi Gavriel
• Shekalim Parwiz

Classifications

• H04B7/15514 Primary

  for shadowing compensation (for satellite mobile telephony service systems H04B7/18536) · CPC title

• H04B10/2504 Primary

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04W72/04

  Wireless resource allocation · CPC title

• H04B10/25891 Primary

  Transmission components (H04B10/40 takes precedence) · CPC title