Base station router for distributed antenna systems

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10063287-B2
Application number	US-201715676658-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 14, 2017
Priority date	Jul 11, 2011
Publication date	Aug 28, 2018
Grant date	Aug 28, 2018

Abstract

Certain aspects are directed to a base station router disposed in a distributed antenna system. The base station router includes a backplane and a controller. The backplane can manage an availability of sectors for coverage zones. Each sector can include communication channels to be radiated to mobile devices in the coverage zones and can represent an amount of telecommunication capacity. The controller can respond to a traffic indicator by causing the backplane to redistribute the availability of at least one sector. The sector can be redistributed from a first coverage zone to a second coverage zone.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A routing unit comprising:
circuitry configured to:
receive sectors from a wireless service provider, each sector comprising a plurality of communication channels to be radiated to wireless devices in coverage zones managed by the routing unit and representing an amount of telecommunication capacity for communicating information between the wireless devices and the wireless service provider;
manage an availability of the sectors for the coverage zones;
communicate with an another device configured to manage an additional availability of additional sectors for additional coverage zones;
redistribute the availability of at least one sector from a first coverage zone of the coverage zones managed by the routing unit to a second coverage zone of the coverage zones managed by the routing unit; and
redistribute, via the second interface device, the availability of at least one additional sector from the received sectors between at least one of the coverage zones managed by the routing unit and at least one of the additional coverage zones managed by the another device, wherein redistributing the availability of the at least one additional sector decreases a capacity density of at least one coverage zone managed by the routing unit and increases a capacity density of at least one additional coverage zone managed by the another device.

2. The routing unit of claim 1 , wherein each communication channel corresponds to a signal configured to carry data.

3. The routing unit of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of communication channels comprises a plurality of RF channels.

4. The routing unit of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of communication channels comprises a plurality of digital signals, wherein each digital signal represents an RF channel.

5. The routing unit of claim 1 , wherein redistributing the availability of the at least one sector comprises increasing the number of communication channels provided to a first unit in the first coverage zone and decreasing the number of communication channels provided to a second unit in the second coverage zone.

6. The routing unit of claim 1 , wherein the circuitry is further configured to:
execute a scheduling algorithm outputting a traffic indicator; and
redistribute the availability of the at least one sector from the first coverage zone to the second coverage zone in response to the traffic indicator;
wherein the traffic indicator comprises a schedule indicator stored in a tangible memory device.

7. The routing unit of claim 1 , wherein the circuitry is further configured to:
identify a spectrum of signals in the first coverage zone and the second coverage zone;
determine a traffic indicator based on the spectrum of signals; and
redistribute the availability of the at least one sector from the first coverage zone to the second coverage zone in response to the traffic indicator;
wherein the traffic indicator comprises a quantity of wireless devices in each coverage zone.

8. The routing unit of claim 1 , wherein the circuitry is further configured to:
transform signals associated with a plurality of sectors into digital data streams;
combine a first subset of the digital data streams associated with a first sector into a first combined digital data stream;
combine a second subset of the digital data streams associated with a second sector into a second combined digital data stream; and
provide the first combined digital data stream and the second combined digital data stream to a first zone interface card configured to communicate with a first unit in the first coverage zone and a second zone interface card configured to communicate with a second unit in the second coverage zone.

9. A distributed antenna system, comprising:
a first unit configured to wirelessly communicate with wireless devices located in a first coverage zone;
a second unit configured to wirelessly communicate with wireless devices located in a second coverage zone;
a routing unit configured to:
receive a sector from a wireless service provider; and
distribute an availability of the sector to the first unit and the second unit, the sector comprising a plurality of communication channels and representing an amount of telecommunication capacity; and

an another device configured to manage an availability of additional sectors for additional coverage zones,
wherein the routing unit is further configured to redistribute the availability of at least one additional sector between at least one of: (1) the first coverage zone and the second coverage zone managed by the routing unit; and (2) at least one of the additional coverage zones managed by the another device, wherein redistributing the availability of the at least one additional sector decreases a capacity density of at least one of the first coverage zone and the second coverage zone managed by the routing unit and increases a capacity density of at least one additional coverage zone managed by the another device.

10. The distributed antenna system of claim 9 , wherein each communication channel corresponds to a signal configured to carry data.

11. The distributed antenna system of claim 9 , wherein the plurality of communication channels comprises a plurality of RF channels.

12. The distributed antenna system of claim 9 , wherein the plurality of communication channels comprises a plurality of digital signals, wherein each digital signal represents an RF channel.

13. The distributed antenna system of claim 9 , wherein redistributing the availability of at least one sector comprises increasing the number of communication channels provided to the first unit and decreasing the number of communication channels provided to the second unit.

14. The distributed antenna system of claim 9 , wherein the routing unit is further configured to:
execute a scheduling algorithm outputting a traffic indicator; and
redistribute the availability of an additional sector from the first coverage zone to the second coverage zone in response to a traffic indicator, wherein the traffic indicator comprises a schedule indicator stored in a tangible memory device.

15. The distributed antenna system of claim 9 , wherein the routing unit is further configured to:
identify a spectrum of signals in the first coverage zone and the second coverage zone;
determine a traffic indicator based on the spectrum of signals; and
redistribute the availability of the at least one sector from the first coverage zone to the second coverage zone in response to a traffic indicator, wherein the traffic indicator comprises a quantity of wireless devices in each coverage zone.

16. The distributed antenna system of claim 9 , further comprising:
a plurality of units in the first coverage zone; and
a detection device configured to:
communicate with a unit; and
detect a received signal strength indicator associated with an uplink signal transmitted by an identified wireless device;

wherein the routing unit comprises a zone interface card configured to communicate with the detection device via a reference receiver input and is configured to determine a geographic location of the identified wireless device based on the respective signal strength of the received signal strength indicator.

17. A method, comprising:
distributing, by a routing unit, an availability of a sector received from a wireless service provider to a first coverage zone, the sector comprising a plurality of communication channels and representing an amount of telecommunication capacity;
redistributing, by the routing unit, the availa

Assignees

• Commscope Technologies Llc

Inventors

• Kummetz Thomas
• Melester Matthew Thomas
• Eisenwinter Stefan
• Kurk Morgan C

Classifications

• H04B7/2606

  Arrangements for base station coverage control, e.g. by using relays in tunnels · CPC title

• H04W88/085

  Access point devices with remote components · CPC title

• H04W16/06

  Hybrid resource partitioning, e.g. channel borrowing · CPC title

• H04W72/04

  Wireless resource allocation · CPC title

• H04W16/26

  Cell enhancers {or enhancement}, e.g. for tunnels, building shadow · CPC title