Subscriber unit in a hybrid link incorporating spatial multiplexing

• US 20050025099A1
• Filed: 08/26/2004
• Published: 02/03/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 07/30/1999
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Heath, Robert W. Jr., Paulraj, Arogyaswami J., Sebastian, Peroor K., Chopra, Rahul
• Granted Patent: US 7,773,564 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/334
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 17/309 Measuring or estimating channel quality parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/06 at the transmitting station
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0613 using simultaneous transmission H04B7/0686 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/2612 Arrangements for wireless medium access control, e.g. by allocating physical layer transmission capacity H04B7/2615 - H04B7/2643 take precedence; provision for broadband connection H04Q11/0478
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/71 Wireless systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/02 Resource partitioning among network components, e.g. reuse partitioning
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/12 Fixed resource partitioning
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/24 Cell structures
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/28 using beam steering
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/12 using signalling between network elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/24 Reselection being triggered by specific parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/046 the resource being in the space domain, e.g. beams
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 74/04 Scheduled access hybrid access H04W74/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 80/00 Wireless network protocols or protocol adaptations to wireless operation
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/042 Public Land Mobile systems, e.g. cellular systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/02 Terminal devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/08 Access point devices

Abstract

The present invention provides methods and apparatus for implementing spatial multiplexing in conjunction with the one or more multiple access protocols during the broadcast of information in a wireless network. A subscriber unit for use in a cellular system is disclosed. The subscriber unit includes a plurality of spatially separate antennas and a transmitter for transmitting a plurality of substreams of a datastream on an assigned channel or slot of a multiple access protocol. The transmitter is arranged to apply each substream to an associated one of the spatially separate antennas.

Claims

1. A wireless cellular remote unit for transmitting a datastream to at least one base station that is part of a cellular network, the wireless cellular remote unit comprising:

a plurality of spatially separate antennas;

a transmitter for transmitting a plurality of substreams of the datastream on an assigned channel or slot of a multiple access protocol, the transmitter being arranged to apply each substream to an associated one of the spatially separate antennas, the transmitter further being responsive to a control signal from the base station to vary the number of applied substreams.

2. The wireless cellular remote unit of claim 1, wherein the multiple access protocol is selected from at least one of a group of multiple access protocols consisting of:

code-division multiple access, frequency-division multiple access, time-division multiple access, space-division multiple access, orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA), wavelength division multiple access (WDMA), wavelet division multiple access, orthogonal division multiple access (ODMA) and quasi-orthogonal division multiple access techniques.

3. The wireless cellular remote unit of claim 1, wherein the assigned channel or slot comprises, within a transmission bandwidth, at least one of:

a frequency-division, a time-division, a spatial-division, a code-division, orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA), wavelength division multiple access (WDMA), wavelet division multiple access or any other orthogonal division multiple access (ODMA)/quasi-orthogonal division multiple access techniques.

4. The wireless cellular remote unit of claim 1, wherein the remote unit communicates with a first network to provide the first network with access to the cellular network.

5. The wireless cellular remote unit of claim 4 wherein the first network is one selected from the group consisting of a home network, a vehicle based network and a local area network.

6. A subscriber unit as recited in claim 1 wherein the subscriber unit is incorporated into a bridge or router to provide a wireless bridge or router.

7. The wireless cellular remote unit of claim 1, wherein the remote unit is fixed.

8. The wireless cellular remote unit of claim 1, wherein the remote unit is mobile.

9. The wireless cellular remote unit of claim 1, wherein the remote unit further comprises transmit processes from at least one of a group of transmit processes consisting of diversity, space coding, space-time coding, space frequency coding, beam forming and interference canceling.

10. The wireless cellular remote unit of claim 1, wherein the transmitter includes a parser for parsing the datastream into the substreams.

11. The wireless cellular remote unit of claim 10, wherein the parser is responsive to a mode signal to parse the datastream into a variable number of substreams and to avoid parsing of each datastream.

12. The wireless cellular remote unit of claim 10, wherein the parser is responsive to a modulation rate of each substream.

13. The wireless cellular remote unit of claim 1 further comprising a selector arranged to inject a routed one of the substreams onto the assigned channel.

14. A wireless cellular remote unit for transmitting a datastream to at least one base station that is part of a cellular network, the wireless cellular remote unit comprising:

a plurality of spatially separate antennas;

a transmitter for transmitting a plurality of substreams of the datastream on an assigned channel or slot of a multiple access protocol, the transmitter being arranged to apply each substream to an associated one of the spatially separate antennas;

a detector to detect a mode of the datastream and to generate a corresponding mode signal; and

a parser responsive to the mode signal to parse the datastream into a variable number of substreams and to avoid parsing of the datastream.

15. The wireless cellular remote unit of claim 14, wherein the modes of the datastream includes voice mode and data mode and wherein further the parser responsive to a voice mode signal avoids parsing of the datastream, and responsive to a data mode signal parses the datastream into a variable number of substreams.

16. The wireless cellular remote unit of claim 14, wherein the modes of the datastream include high bit rate and low bit rate and wherein further the parser avoids parsing of a low bit rate datastream, and parses a high bit rate datastream into a variable number of substreams.

17. The wireless cellular remote unit 14, wherein the modes of the datastream includes QoS requirement and high QoS requirement and wherein further the parser avoids parsing a datastream with a low QoS requirement, and parses a datastream with a high QoS requirement into a variable number of substreams.

18. A wireless cellular remote unit for receiving a downlink datastream from and transmitting an uplink datastream to at least one base station that is part of a cellular network, the wireless cellular remote unit comprising:

a plurality of spatially separate antennas;

a transmitter for transmitting a plurality of uplink substreams of the uplink datastream on an assigned channel or slot of a multiple access protocol, the transmitter being arranged to apply each uplink substream to an associated one of the spatially separate antennas;

a receiver including a spatial processor arranged to separate a composite downlink signal received by the spatially separate antennas into estimated substreams, and a combiner for combining the estimated substreams into a corresponding subscriber datastream, the receiver being arranged to signal the base stations when a change of a spatial transmission configuration is required in order to resolve the composite signals into estimated substreams.

19. A wireless cellular remote unit as recited in claim 18 wherein the remote unit takes the form of a network access unit that is a node in a network that facilitates communication outside of the network.

20. A repeater base station suitable for use in conjunction with a master base station that is part of a cellular network, the repeater base station including:

a slave base station; and

a wireless interface unit comprising,

a plurality of spatially separate antennas; and

a transmitter for transmitting a plurality of substreams of a datastream on an assigned channel or slot of a multiple access protocol, the transmitter being arranged to apply each substream to an associated one of the spatially separate antennas, the transmitter further being responsive to a control signal from the master base station to vary the number of applied substreams.

21. A communications network comprising:

a master station controller;

at least one base station controller that communicates with the master station controller;

a plurality of base station, each base station being arranged to communicate with an associated one of the base station controllers, wherein at least one of the base stations is designated as a master base station; and

a repeater base station as recited in claim 20.

22. A unit for use in a communications network that delivers DSL service to customers, the unit comprising:

a head end DSL modem arranged to communicate with a remotely located DSL modem using a DSL protocol; and

a wireless access unit comprising arranged to receive a datastream from the head end DSL modem, the wireless access unit including, a plurality of spatially separate antennas and a transmitter for transmitting a plurality of substreams of the datastream on an assigned channel or slot of a multiple access protocol, the transmitter being arranged to apply each substream to an associated one of the spatially separate antennas.

23. A unit as recited in claim 22 wherein the unit is coupled to a terminal server in a POTS communications network such that a first link between the remotely located DSL modem and the head end DSL modem takes the form of twisted pair wiring and a second link between the wireless access unit and a base station takes the form of a wireless link.

24. A unit for use in a communications network that delivers high speed data delivery service to customers, the unit comprising:

a head end cable modem unit arranged to communicate with a remotely located cable modem over a cable;

a wireless access unit comprising arranged to receive a datastream from the head end cable modem, the wireless access unit including, a plurality of spatially separate antennas and a transmitter for transmitting a plurality of substreams of the datastream on an assigned channel or slot of a multiple access protocol, the transmitter being arranged to apply each substream to an associated one of the spatially separate antennas.

25. A unit as recited in claim 24 wherein the cable is one selected from the group consisting of a hybrid fiber co-axial cable, a co-axial cable and a fiber cable.

26. A method of transmitting a datastream from a remote unit to at least one cellular base station in a cellular network, the method comprising:

forming a plurality of substreams from the datastream, wherein the number of substreams formed is determined in response to a control signal received from one of the base stations; and

transmitting the substreams in parallel from spatially separate antennas on an assigned channel or slot using a multiple access protocol.

27. A method as recited in claim 26 wherein:

the multiple access protocol is selected from a group consisting of code-division multiple access, frequency-division multiple access, time-division multiple access, space-division multiple access, orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA), wavelength division multiple access (WDMA), wavelet division multiple access, orthogonal division multiple access (ODMA) and quasi-orthogonal division multiple access techniques; and

the assigned channel or slot comprises, within a transmission bandwidth, at least one of a frequency-division, a time-division, a spatial-division, a code-division, orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA), wavelength division multiple access (WDMA), wavelet division multiple access or any other orthogonal division multiple access (ODMA)/quasi-orthogonal division multiple access techniques.

28. A method of communicating between a remote location and one or more base stations in a cellular network, the method comprising:

transmitting a datastream from the remote location to a wireless access unit over a wired connection using a communications protocol selected from the group consisting of an xDSL protocol, a cable modem protocol and a networking protocol;

forming a plurality of substreams from the datastream; and

transmitting the substreams to the one or more base stations in parallel from spatially separate antennas on an assigned channel or slot using a multiple access protocol.

29. A wireless cellular remote unit for receiving a downlink datastream from and transmitting an uplink datastream to at least one base station that is part of a cellular network, the wireless cellular remote unit comprising:

a plurality of spatially separate antennas;

transmission means for transmitting a plurality of uplink substreams of the uplink datastream on an assigned channel or slot of a multiple access protocol, the transmitter being arranged to apply each uplink substream to an associated one of the spatially separate antennas; and

receiver means arranged to separate a composite downlink signal received by the spatially separate antennas into estimated substreams, and combine the estimated substreams into a corresponding subscriber datastream.

30. A wireless cellular remote unit as recited in claim 29 wherein:

the remote unit is arranged to signal the base stations when a change of a spatial transmission configuration is required by the receiver in order to resolve the composite signals into estimated substreams; and

the transmitter is responsive to a control signal from the base station to vary the number of applied substreams.