Antenna-integrated radio with wireless fronthaul

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9654168-B2
Application number	US-201615263365-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 12, 2016
Priority date	Sep 11, 2015
Publication date	May 16, 2017
Grant date	May 16, 2017

Abstract

A system is disclosed, comprising: a wireless fronthaul access point mounted on a radio mast and configured to receive digital I and Q signaling information from a remote baseband unit for a plurality of radios, the wireless fronthaul access point further comprising a first millimeter wave wireless interface; and an antenna-integrated radio for providing access to user equipments (UEs), mounted within line of sight on the radio mast with the wireless fronthaul access point, the antenna-integrated radio further comprising: a second millimeter wave wireless interface configured to receive the digital I and Q signaling information from the baseband unit via the wireless fronthaul access point, wherein the wireless fronthaul access point thereby wirelessly couples the remote baseband unit and the antenna-integrated radio.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A system, comprising:
a wireless fronthaul access point mounted on a radio mast and configured to receive digital I and Q signaling information from a remote baseband unit for a plurality of radios, the wireless fronthaul access point further comprising a first millimeter wave wireless interface; and
an antenna-integrated radio for providing access to user equipments (UEs), mounted within line of sight on the radio mast with the wireless fronthaul access point, the antenna-integrated radio further comprising:
a second millimeter wave wireless interface configured to receive the digital I and Q signaling information from the baseband unit via the wireless fronthaul access point and facing toward the wireless fronthaul access point,
a software-defined radio (SDR) configured to receive the digital I and Q signaling information and output a radio signal,
a power amplifier coupled to the SDR and configured to amplify the radio signal from the SDR,
a radio frequency (RF) filter coupled to the power amplifier and configured to filter the radio signal from the power amplifier, and
an antenna facing away from the wireless fronthaul access point and coupled to the RF filter for transmitting the radio signal, thereby providing access to user equipments (UEs) via the transmitted radio signal;

wherein the wireless fronthaul access point thereby wirelessly couples the remote baseband unit and the antenna-integrated radio.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the antenna-integrated radio provides a single channel of a multi-channel multiple input, multiple output (MIMO) antenna configuration.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the antenna-integrated radio is configured to provide Long Term Evolution (LTE) wireless access to UEs, and wherein the wireless fronthaul access point further comprises an optical fiber or Ethernet connection to the remote baseband unit.

4. The system of claim 1 , further comprising a second and a third antenna-integrated radios for providing three sector coverage of an area, mounted on the radio mast in a triangular configuration with the antenna-integrated radio, each in communication with the wireless fronthaul access point for digital I and Q signaling information from the baseband unit.

5. The system of claim 1 , further comprising a second antenna-integrated radio, the antenna-integrated radio and the second antenna-integrated radio further comprising a synchronization chip or using global positioning system (GPS) hardware for synchronization.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the first and second millimeter wave wireless interfaces are 60 GHz WiGig interfaces, and wherein the antenna-integrated radio further comprises an additional Wi-Fi radio and an additional 60 GHz WiGig interface.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the antenna-integrated radio is in communication with adjacent antenna-integrated radios mounted on the radio mast via a WiGig mesh network and is configured for coordinated multiple-in, multiple-out (MIMO) operation with the adjacent antenna-integrated radios.

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein the antenna-integrated radio is configured to couple to a zero-insertion force (ZIF) docking power socket as its only physical connection on the radio mast.

Assignees

• Parallel Wireless Inc

Inventors

• Papa Steven Paul
• Mishra Rajesh Kumar

Classifications

• H04B7/0413

  MIMO systems · CPC title

• H04B1/40 Primary

  Circuits · CPC title

• H04W84/18

  Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks · CPC title

• H04W88/06

  adapted for operation in multiple networks {or having at least two operational modes}, e.g. multi-mode terminals · CPC title

• H04W88/085

  Access point devices with remote components · CPC title