Method and apparatus for improving quality of service over meshed bachaul facilities in a wireless network

• US 20060083186A1
• Filed: 10/18/2004
• Published: 04/20/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 10/18/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: RPX Clearinghouse LLC (RPX Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Nortel Networks Limited (Nortel Networks Corporation)
• Inventors: Duxbury, Guy, Kwong, Herman, Marcanti, Larry, Parlor, Bryan, Handforth, Martin Ridgway, Soh, Kah-Ming, Kodaypak, Prasad
• Granted Patent: US 7,366,120 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/310
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/085 Access point devices with remote components

Abstract

Redundant wireless links in a meshed backhaul network may be used to improve quality of service on the backhaul network by confining knowledge of the duality to the attached network elements. Globally, an aggregate bandwidth of the redundant wireless links may be advertised to allow network level routing to treat the redundant links as a single logical link. At the link level, however, the network elements may differentiate between different types of traffic to provide preferential service to particular types of traffic. By using different physical links within the logical link for particular types of traffic, the quality of service for that type of traffic may be improved by not causing different types of traffic to compete for the same bandwidth. The redundant links may be interfaced using a tower network including a radio accessed router optionally powered using solar power, to isolate the tower network from ground equipment

Claims

1. A communication network, comprising:

a wireless network formed from a plurality of base transceiver stations configured to operate according to a wireless network technology; and

a meshed backhaul network configured to carry backhaul traffic for said cellular network from the base transceiver stations to an aggregation point, said meshed backhaul network comprising links between the base transceiver stations and between the base transceiver stations and the aggregation point;

wherein at least one of the links is a dual redundant wireless link interconnecting two network elements, said two network elements comprising at least one of two of the base transceiver stations, and a base transceiver station and an aggregation point.

2. The communication network of claim 1, wherein the dual redundant wireless link includes at least two individual wireless links, and wherein knowledge of the at least two wireless links is limited to the two network elements interconnected by the at least two wireless links.

4. The communication network of claim 2, wherein the communication network is configured to handle at least two types of network traffic, and wherein the network elements are configured to use a first of the at least two wireless links to transport a first of the types of network traffic and are configured to use another of the wireless links to transport at least a second of the types of network traffic.

5. The communication network of claim 1, wherein the meshed backhaul network comprises a plurality of dual or multiple redundant wireless links interconnecting sets of base transceiver stations.

6. The communication network of claim 1, wherein the aggregation point is a central office, and wherein the meshed backhaul network comprises a plurality of dual or multiple redundant wireless links interconnecting base transceiver stations with the central office.

7. The cellular network of claim 6, further comprising a wireless backhaul aggregation point configured to interface with at least one of the base transceiver stations and forming part of the backhaul network, but which is not configured to interface with subscribers of the cellular network.

8. The cellular network of claim 1, wherein the wireless network includes a wireless subscriber cellular network and a wireless subscriber data network separate from the wireless subscriber cellular network and formed from a plurality of wireless subscriber network transceivers configured to operate according to a wireless networking technology other than a cellular wireless networking technology;

and wherein the backhaul network is further configured to carry traffic from the plurality of wireless subscriber network transceivers.

3. The communication network of claim 3, wherein the network elements are configured to advertise an aggregate bandwidth available on the at least two wireless links as a single available bandwidth to the base transceiver stations on the network.

9. A base transceiver station backhaul interface card, comprising:

at least one base transceiver station interface configured to interface a base transceiver station;

a plurality of backhaul interfaces configured to connect to backhaul links on a backhaul network; and

a switch processor configured to route backhaul traffic between the base transceiver station interface and plurality of backhaul interfaces, said switch processor being configured to implement local knowledge of dual redundant links between points on the backhaul network.

10. The base transceiver station of claim 9, wherein the switch processor is further configured to route backhaul traffic between the plurality of backhaul interfaces.

11. The base transceiver station of claim 9, further comprising at least one local wireless network interface configured to connect to a local wireless network.

12. The base transceiver station of claim 11, wherein the switch processor is further configured to route traffic between the wireless network interface and the plurality of backhaul interfaces.

13. A network of radio antenna units on top of a cellular tower, the network comprising:

a plurality of addressable radio antenna units;

a radio accessed router configured to route signals to the addressable radio antenna units; and

at least one radio antenna unit pointed downward to receive wireless communications from a network device disposed in an area including a base of the cellular tower.

14. The network of claim 13, wherein the radio antenna unit pointed downward is configured to receive communications from a base transceiver station associated with the cellular tower.

15. The network of claim 13, wherein at least one of the radio antenna units comprises:

at least two power supply units;

at least two antennas; and

at least two processing circuits configured to receive power from the power supply units and process signals received and transmitted from the antennas.

16. The network of claim 15, further comprising a casing, said casing having means for facilitating initial visual alignment of the radio antenna unit.

17. The network of claim 16, wherein the means for facilitating initial visual alignment of the radio antenna unit is formed to be at least one of integral with the casing and means for mounting a separable sight onto the casing.

18. The network of claim 13, further comprising at least one solar panel configured to provide power to the radio accessed router.

19. The network of claim 18, wherein the radio antenna units are addressable on the network from the radio accessed router, wherein the network is implemented using Ethernet, and wherein the radio accessed router is configured to provide power to the radio antenna units using power over Ethernet.

20. The network of claim 18, further comprising two batteries connected to the solar panels and configured to receive the power from the solar panels and use the power to charge the batteries.