Determining propagation delay of communications in distributed antenna systems, and related components, systems, and methods

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9369222-B2
Application number	US-201514936007-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 9, 2015
Priority date	Apr 29, 2011
Publication date	Jun 14, 2016
Grant date	Jun 14, 2016

Abstract

Components, systems, and methods for determining propagation delay of communications in distributed antenna systems are disclosed. The propagation delay of communications signals distributed in the distributed antenna systems is determined. If desired, the propagation delay(s) can be determined on a per remote antenna unit basis for the distributed antenna systems. The propagation delay(s) can provided by the distributed antenna systems to a network or other system to be taken into consideration for communications services or operations that are based on communications signal delay. As another non-limiting example, propagation delay can be determined and controlled for each remote antenna unit to uniquely distinguish the remote antenna units. In this manner, the location of a client device communicating with a remote antenna unit can be determined within the communication range of the remote antenna unit.

First claim

We claim:

1. A communications system, comprising:
a distributed antenna system, comprising:
at least one downlink radio frequency (RF) interface configured to receive downlink RF signals from a base station and distribute the downlink RF signals over at least one downlink communications medium to one or more remote antenna units (RAUs) to be communicated to one or more client devices;
at least one uplink RF interface configured to receive uplink RF signals over at least one uplink communications medium from the one or more RAUs communicated by the one or more client devices to the one or more RAUs; and
a propagation delay generator configured to add propagation delay to the at least one uplink communications medium;

at least one propagation delay measurement circuit communicatively coupled to the at least one downlink RF interface and the at least one uplink RF interface, the at least one propagation delay measurement circuit configured to measure propagation delay of the received uplink RF signals from the one or more client devices by the at least one uplink RF interface in response to the downlink RF signals; and
a controller communicatively coupled to the at least one propagation delay measurement circuit, the controller configured to determine the location of the one or more client devices as a function of determined propagation delay of the received uplink RF signals from the one or more client devices.

2. The communications system of claim 1 , wherein the distributed antenna system further comprises a head-end unit comprising:
the at least one downlink RF interface configured to receive the downlink RF signals from the base station and distribute the downlink RF signals over at least one downlink communications medium to the one or more RAUs to be communicated to the one or more client devices; and
the at least one uplink RF interface configured to receive the uplink RF signals over the at least one uplink communications medium from the one or more RAUs communicated by the one or more client devices to the one or more RAUs;
each of the one or more RAUs configured to:
receive the downlink RF signals from the head-end unit over the at least one downlink communications medium;
communicate the received downlink RF signals to the one or more client devices;
receive the uplink RF signals from the one or more client devices; and
distribute the received uplink RF signals over the at least one uplink communications medium to the head-end unit.

3. The communications system of claim 1 , wherein the propagation delay generator is further configured to add propagation delay to the at least one downlink communications medium.

4. The communications system of claim 3 , wherein the propagation delay generator is configured to equalize the propagation delay between each of the at least one downlink communications medium and the at least one uplink communications medium.

5. The communications system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one propagation delay measurement circuit is further configured to measure propagation delay of the received downlink RF signals from the base station to the one or more RAUs.

6. The communications system of claim 5 , wherein the controller is further configured to determine a location of the one or more client devices as a function of determined propagation delay of the received downlink RF signals from the base station to the one or more RAUs.

7. The communications system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one downlink communications medium and the at least one uplink communications medium includes at least one optical fiber medium.

8. The communications system of claim 6 , wherein the at least one downlink communications medium and the at least one uplink communications medium includes at least one electrical conductor medium.

9. The communications system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one downlink communications medium and the at least one uplink communications medium includes at least one air media.

10. The communications system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one propagation delay measurement circuit is located in the base station.

11. The communications system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one propagation delay measurement circuit is located in at the at least one downlink RF interface.

12. The communications system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one downlink RF interface is comprised of at least one radio interface module configure to receive the downlink RF signals from the base station, filter the received downlink RF signals, and and distribute the filtered downlink RF signals as the downlink RF signals over the at least one downlink communications medium to the one or more RAUs.

13. The communications system of claim 1 , further comprising at least one optical RF interface providing at least a portion of the at least one downlink RF interface and the at least one uplink RF interface, the at least one optical RF interface configured to:
receive the downlink RF signals as downlink electrical RF signals;
convert the received downlink electrical RF signals to downlink optical RF signals;
receive the uplink RF signals from the one or more RAUs as uplink optical RF signals; and
convert the received uplink optical RF signals into uplink electrical RF signals.

14. The communications system of claim 13 , wherein the at least one propagation delay measurement circuit is located at the at least one optical RF interface to measure the propagation delay between the at least one downlink RF interface and an RAU among the one or more RAUs.

15. The communications system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one propagation delay measurement circuit is comprised of a plurality of propagation delay measurement circuits, each of the plurality of propagation delay measurement circuits communicatively coupled to one downlink RF interface among the at least one downlink RF interface and one uplink RF interface among the at least one uplink RF interface.

16. The communications system of claim 1 , wherein the controller is further configured to communicate to an RAU among the one or more RAUs over the at least one downlink communications medium to return received downlink RF signals as uplink RF signals to the at least one uplink RF interface.

17. A method of determining a location of a client device in a distributed antenna system, comprising:
receiving downlink radio frequency (RF) signals from a base station;
distributing the downlink RF signals over at least one downlink communications medium to one or more remote antenna units (RAUs) to be communicated to one or more client devices;
receiving uplink RF signals over at least one uplink communications medium from the one or more RAUs communicated by the one or more client devices to the one or more RAUs; and
adding propagation delay to the at least one uplink communications medium;
measuring propagation delay of the received uplink RF signals from the one or more client devices in response to the downlink RF signals; and
determining the location of the one or more client devices as a function of determined propagation delay of the received uplink RF signals from the one or more client devices.

18. The method of claim 17 , further comprising adding propagation delay to the at least one downlink communications medium.

19. The method of claim 18 , further comprising equalizing the propagation delay between each of the at least one downlink communications medium and the at least one uplink communications medium.

20. The method of cl

Assignees

• Corning Optical Comm Llc

Inventors

• Berlin Igor
• Pikula Dragan
• Sauer Michael
• Schmidt Gerald B

Classifications

• H04W56/0065

  using measurement of signal travel time · CPC title

• H04B17/104

  of other parameters, e.g. DC offset, delay or propagation times · CPC title

• H04B17/40 Primary

  of relay systems · CPC title

• H04W64/006

  with additional information processing, e.g. for direction or speed determination · CPC title

• H04B7/155

  Ground-based stations (H04B7/204 takes precedence) · CPC title