Optimizing remote antenna unit performance using an alternative data channel

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016309340-A1
Application number	US-201514687423-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Apr 15, 2015
Priority date	Apr 15, 2015
Publication date	Oct 20, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

A method and system for monitoring and optimizing a network may include configuring a remote antenna unit with a first transceiver for uplinking and downlinking a signal of a cellular service and with a second transceiver for uplinking and downlinking of the signal of at least one of a Bluetooth or Wi-Fi or Zigbee service. Performance data is collected from at least one user equipment configured for connecting to the remote antenna unit. The collected performance data is routed to a performance data collector configured to aggregate the performance data. The aggregated performance data is correlated. The network is optimized based on the correlated performance data.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A system for managing communication over a network, the system comprising:
a remote antenna unit comprising:
a transceiver configured for uplinking and downlinking a signal of a cellular service;
a transceiver configured for uplinking and downlinking data of a non-cellular service; and
a combiner/splitter configured for combining an uplinked signal of the cellular service with an uplinked signal of the data of a non-cellular service onto a conductor of a cellular service and for splitting the downlinked signal of the cellular signal from a downlinked signal of the data of a non-cellular service transmitted over a conductor of a cellular service;
the combiner/splitter responsive to a signal in a management channel, the management channel including a first field of data for controlling or monitoring the signal of the cellular service and a second field of data including the data of a non-cellular service.

2 . The system of claim 1 wherein the conductor is a fiber optic cable.

3 . The system of claim 1 wherein the service is selected from the group of services consisting of Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and ZigBee.

4 . The system of claim 1 wherein the management channel further includes a third field of data for controlling a signal of the service other than a cellular service.

5 . A network optimization system comprising:
a remote antenna unit comprising:
a transceiver configured for uplinking and downlinking a signal of a cellular service;
a transceiver configured for uplinking and downlinking a signal of at least one of a Bluetooth or Wi-Fi or Zigbee service;
a router configured to route performance data collected from at least one user equipment configured for connecting to the remote antenna unit, where the user equipment is configured to execute an instance of a data service configured to collect data on a performance of the network; a performance data collector configured to aggregate the collected performance data; and an optimizer controller configured to correlate the aggregated performance data to determine adjustments to the network optimization system based on the correlated performance data.

6 . The network optimization system of claim 5 , wherein the at least one user equipment includes a multiple application processor, a wireless service processor and a memory, each of the multiple application processor and the wireless service processor communicating data over a communication interface to the remote antenna unit, the multiple application processor configured to execute the instance of the data service for collecting data on the performance of the network.

7 . The network optimization system of claim 5 wherein the optimizer controller is further configured for performing optimization activities.

8 . The network optimization system of claim 7 wherein the optimization activities include instructing the remote antenna unit to change its power level in order to increase or decrease signal strength to the at least one user equipment or decrease interference level to another user equipment,

9 . The network optimization system of claim 7 wherein the remote antenna unit is a first remote antenna unit and the optimization activities comprise instructing the router to change a routing to the at least one user equipment from the first remote antenna unit to a second remote antenna unit.

10 . The network optimization system of claim 9 wherein the changed routing is for mitigating identified interferences.

11 . The network optimization system of claim 5 wherein the remote antenna unit includes:
a first antenna configured for transmitting and receiving cellular signals from and to the cellular transceiver; and
a second antenna configured for transmitting and receiving the at least one of a Bluetooth or Wi-Fi or Zigbee signal from and to the Bluetooth or Wi-Fi service or Zigbee transceiver.

12 . The network optimization system of claim 5 wherein the collected performance data is accumulated and averaged over a period of time.

13 . The network optimization system of claim 5 wherein the collected performance data is mapped as a heat map configured for use in optimizing the network.

14 . The network optimization system of claim 13 wherein the mapping occurs in real time.

15 . A method for optimizing a network, the method comprising:
configuring a remote antenna unit with a first transceiver for uplinking and downlinking a signal of a cellular service and with a second transceiver for uplinking and downlinking of the signal of at least one of a Bluetooth or Wi-Fi or Zigbee service; collecting performance data from at least one user equipment configured for connecting to the remote antenna unit; routing the collected performance data to a performance data collector configured to aggregate the performance data; correlating the aggregated performance data; and optimizing the network based on the correlated performance data.

16 . The method of claim 15 , wherein the step of routing is performed by a router included in a head end unit.

17 . The method of claim 15 , wherein each of the at least one user equipment comprises a multiple application processor, a wireless service processor and a memory; each of the multiple application processor, the wireless service processor and the memory configured for communicating data over a communication interface to the remote antenna unit, and the multiple application processor is configured to execute an instance of a data service, the data service configured to obtain data on a performance of the network through the remote antenna unit.

18 . The method of claim 15 , the step of optimizing comprising the further step of instructing the remote antenna unit to change a power level to increase or decrease signal strength of a downlink signal to a cellular service in order to decrease the interference.

19 . The method of claim 15 , wherein the remote antenna unit being a first remote antenna unit, and wherein the step of optimizing comprising the further step of instructing the network to change routing of at least one of the user equipment and another of the at least one of the user equipment between the first remote antenna unit and a second remote antenna unit upon detection of an interference with the signal of a cellular service or the signal of at least one of a Bluetooth or Wi-Fi or Zigbee service.

20 . The method of claim 15 , wherein the performance data concerns the remote antenna unit and a location of the at least one of the user equipment.

21 . The method of claim 15 , wherein the performance data comprises at least one datum selected from the group consisting of signal strength, signal to noise ratio, uplink throughput, downlink throughput and data.

22 . The method of claim 15 , further comprising the step of accumulating and averaging the collected performance data over a period of time.

23 . The method of claim 15 , further comprising the step of mapping the performance data as a heat map.

24 . The method of claim 23 , further comprising the step of optimizing the network using the heat map.

25 . The method of claim 15 , further comprising the steps of:
connecting the network to at least one provider of a cellular service and at least one provider of the at least one of a Bluetooth or Wi-Fi or Zigbee service, connecting a head end unit to the at least one provider of the cellular servic

Assignees

• Corning Optical Communications Wireless Ltd

Inventors

• Malach Adi

Classifications

• H04W72/20

  Control channels or signalling for resource management · CPC title

• H04W72/0406

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04B7/2609 Primary

  Arrangements for range control, e.g. by using remote antennas · CPC title

• H04W24/02 Primary

  Arrangements for optimising operational condition · CPC title

• H04W52/0238

  where the received signal is an unwanted signal, e.g. interference or idle signal · CPC title