Determining location of client devices in a distributed antenna system (DAS) based on detecting received uplink power

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9730011-B2
Application number	US-201514984014-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 30, 2015
Priority date	Nov 10, 2015
Publication date	Aug 8, 2017
Grant date	Aug 8, 2017

Abstract

Embodiments of the disclosure relate to determining location of client devices in a distributed antenna system (DAS) based on detecting uplink received power. In this regard, a client device location system is provided in the DAS to configure each remote unit in the DAS to generate a power-regulated UL communications signal based on an assigned power pattern. If a respective power pattern of a reference signal(s) uniquely identifying a client device corresponds to the assigned power pattern of the remote unit that generates the power-regulated UL communications signal, the client device location system reports the location of the remote unit as the location of the client device in the DAS. Hence, it is possible to locate the client device based on the location of the remote unit, thus providing the location of the client device with higher degree of accuracy.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A client device location identification system for a distributed antenna system (DAS), comprising:
a plurality of remote units in the DAS, each of the plurality of remote units configured to:
receive an uplink (UL) communications signal from one or more client devices communicatively coupled to the DAS; and
generate a power-regulated UL communications signal based on an assigned power pattern, the power-regulated UL communications signal comprising one or more reference signals uniquely identifying the one or more client devices; and

a client device location system configured to:
determine the assigned power pattern for each of the plurality of remote units;
receive the power-regulated UL communications signal from each of the plurality of remote units;
determine a respective reference signal power pattern and a respective client device identification associated with each of the one or more reference signals comprised in the received power-regulated UL communications signal; and
determine whether the respective reference signal power pattern corresponds to the assigned power pattern of a remote unit that generates the power-regulated UL communications signal, wherein:

each of the plurality of remote units further configured to communicate a downlink (DL) and a UL communications signal with the one or more client devices; and
the client device location system further is configured to report a location of the remote unit that generates the power-regulated UL communications signal as a location of a client device having the respective client device identification if the respective reference signal power pattern is determined to correspond to the assigned power pattern of the remote unit that generates the power-regulated UL communications signal.

2. The client device location system of claim 1 , wherein the client device location system is further configured to determine the assigned power pattern for one or more radio frequency (RF) channels associated with each of the plurality of remote units.

3. A client device location identification system for a distributed antenna system (DAS), comprising:
a plurality of remote units in the DAS, each of the plurality of remote units configured to:
receive an uplink (UL) communications signal from one or more client devices communicatively coupled to the DAS; and
generate a power-regulated UL communications signal based on an assigned power pattern, the power-regulated UL communications signal comprising one or more reference signals uniquely identifying the one or more client devices; and

a client device location system configured to:
determine the assigned power pattern for each of the plurality of remote units;
receive the power-regulated UL communications signal from each of the plurality of remote units;
determine a respective reference signal power pattern and a respective client device identification associated with each of the one or more reference signals comprised in the received power-regulated UL communications signal; and
determine whether the respective reference signal power pattern corresponds to the assigned power pattern of a remote unit that generates the power-regulated UL communications signal, wherein:

each of the plurality of remote units is further configured to communicate a downlink (DL) and a UL communications signal with the one or more client devices; and
the client device location system is further configured to report a pre-defined location surrounding the remote unit that generates the power-regulated UL communications signal as a location of a client device having the respective client device identification if the respective reference signal power pattern is determined to correspond to the assigned power pattern of the remote unit that generates the power-regulated UL communications signal.

4. A client device location identification system for a distributed antenna system (DAS), comprising:
a plurality of remote units in the DAS, each of the plurality of remote units configured to:
receive an uplink (UL) communications signal from one or more client devices communicatively coupled to the DAS; and
generate a power-regulated UL communications signal based on an assigned power pattern, the power-regulated UL communications signal comprising one or more reference signals uniquely identifying the one or more client devices; and

a client device location system configured to:
determine the assigned power pattern for each of the plurality of remote units;
receive the power-regulated UL communications signal from each of the plurality of remote units;
determine a respective reference signal power pattern and a respective client device identification associated with each of the one or more reference signals comprised in the received power-regulated UL communications signal; and
determine whether the respective reference signal power pattern corresponds to the assigned power pattern of a remote unit that generates the power-regulated UL communications signal, wherein:

each of the plurality of remote units is further configured to communicate a downlink (DL) and a UL communications signal with the one or more client devices; and
if the respective client device identification is associated with the one or more reference signals comprised in one or more power-regulated UL communications signals received from one or more remote units among the plurality of remote units, the client device location system is further configured to:
determine a location of a remote unit among the one or more remote units; and
report the location of the determined remote unit as a location of a client device having the respective client device identification.

5. The client device location identification system of claim 4 , wherein the client device location system is further configured to determine the location of the remote unit among the one or more remote units generating the one or more power-regulated UL communications signals if the location of the determined remote unit is closest to a previous location of the client device.

6. A client device location identification system for a distributed antenna system (DAS), comprising:
a plurality of remote units in the DAS, each of the plurality of remote units configured to:
receive an uplink (UL) communications signal from one or more client devices communicatively coupled to the DAS; and
generate a power-regulated UL communications signal based on an assigned power pattern, the power-regulated UL communications signal comprising one or more reference signals uniquely identifying the one or more client devices; and

a client device location system configured to:
determine the assigned power pattern for each of the plurality of remote units;
receive the power-regulated UL communications signal from each of the plurality of remote units;
determine a respective reference signal power pattern and a respective client device identification associated with each of the one or more reference signals comprised in the received power-regulated UL communications signal;
determine whether the respective reference signal power pattern corresponds to the assigned power pattern of a remote unit that generates the power-regulated UL communications signal;
determine a time-division schedule comprising a plurality of specified periods;
configure each of the plurality of remote units to generate the power-regulated UL communications signal based on the assigned power pattern and the time-division schedule;
receive the power-regulated UL communications signal from one of the plurality of remote units during each of the plurality of specified periods;
determine the respective reference signal power pattern and the respective client device identification assoc

Assignees

• Corning Optical Communications Wireless Ltd

Inventors

• Harel Dror
• Shekalim Parwiz

Classifications

• G01S5/0295

  Proximity-based methods, e.g. position inferred from reception of particular signals · CPC title

• H04W72/20

  Control channels or signalling for resource management · CPC title

• H04W4/02 Primary

  Services making use of location information · CPC title

• H04W52/04

  Transmission power control [TPC] · CPC title

• H04W72/0473

  the resource being transmission power · CPC title