Spectral reuse transceiver-based aggregation of disjoint, relatively narrow bandwidth (voice) channel segments of radio spectrum for wideband RF communication applications

• US 20070019603A1
• Filed: 09/15/2006
• Published: 01/25/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 12/08/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Bone Valley Patents LLC
• Original Assignee: Dataflow Systems Incorporated
• Inventors: Highsmith, William, Gerhardt, Edward, Greenis, Paul
• Granted Patent: US 7,920,538 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/343
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/7143 Arrangements for generation of hop patterns
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 2001/7154 with means for preventing interference
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/2621 using frequency division multiple access [FDMA] H04B7/2615 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0005 Time-frequency
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0037 Inter-user or inter-terminal allocation
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/14 Spectrum sharing arrangements between different networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/00 Supervisory, monitoring or testing arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/10 Scheduling measurement reports ; Arrangements for measurement reports
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/02 Selection of wireless resources by user or terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/23 in the downlink direction of a wireless link, i.e. towards a terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/27 between access points
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 74/08 Non-scheduled access, e.g. ALOHA hybrid access H04W74/02

Abstract

A bandwidth usage control methodology uses the clear channel detection and frequency agile functionality of a spectral reuse transceiver to effectively ‘aggregate’ disjoint user channels into an overall bandwidth, the spectral extent of which is at least sufficient to meet a high bandwidth requirement (such as, but not limited to the transmission of data/video), that cannot be realized by a conventional, single channel radio.

Claims

1. A method of conducting radio frequency (RF) communications comprising the steps of:

(a) aggregating a plurality of disjoint RF bandwidth segments into an overall RF bandwidth that exceeds the bandwidth of each of said disjoint RF bandwidth segments; and

(b) transmitting on a selected portion of said overall RF bandwidth.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein step (b) comprises subdividing said overall RF bandwidth into a plurality of RF sub-channels, and modulating a wideband information signal onto selected ones of said plurality of RF sub-channels.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein side wideband information signal has an effective data rate that is greater than the bandwidth of each of said disjoint RF bandwidth segments.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein step (b) comprises subdividing said overall RF bandwidth into a plurality of RF sub-channels, and controllably hopping among selected ones of said plurality of RF sub-channels.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein said disjoint RF bandwidth segments include two or more of respectively different RF bandwidth disjoint channels, and a respective one of said RF sub-channels has a bandwidth that is no wider than the narrowest RF bandwidth channel of said disjoint RF channels.

6. The method according to claim 4, wherein said disjoint RF bandwidth segments include two or more of 6.25 KHz, 12.5 KHz, 25 KHz and 50 KHz wide RF channels, and each of said RF sub-channels is a 6.25 KHz wide RF sub-channel.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein said plurality of disjoint RF bandwidth segments lie in one or more public service bands.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein said plurality of disjoint RF bandwidth segments lie within a 450-470 MHz band.

9. The method according to claim 1, wherein step (b) comprises transmitting an image-representative communication signal by way of said selected portion of said overall RF bandwidth.

10. A method of conducting radio frequency (RF) communications comprising the steps of:

(a) aggregating a plurality of licensed, differing bandwidth, disjoint RF user channels into an overall RF bandwidth of said disjoint RF user channels, and sub-dividing said overall RF bandwidth into a plurality of RF sub-channels, each having a prescribed bandwidth that is no greater than the bandwidth of each of said licensed, differing bandwidth, disjoint RF user channels; and

(b) controllably hopping among selected ones of said plurality of RF sub-channels and transmitting a wideband information signal by way of successively hopped ones of said plurality of RF sub-channels, said wideband information signal having an effective data rate that is greater than the bandwidth of each of said disjoint RF user channels.

11. The method according to claim 10, wherein said disjoint RF user channels lie in one or more public service bands.

12. The method according to claim 10, wherein step (b) comprises transmitting an image-representative communication signal by way of said successively hopped ones of said plurality of RF sub-channels.

13. In a radio frequency (RF) communication network, wherein a plurality of licensed users conduct RF communications over a plurality of disjoint, differing RF bandwidth channels, the improvement comprising improving the bandwidth utilization of said plurality of disjoint, differing RF bandwidth channels by the performing the steps of:

(a) aggregating said plurality of disjoint, differing RF bandwidth channels into an overall RF bandwidth of said disjoint RF user channels, and sub-dividing said overall RF bandwidth into a plurality of RF sub-channels, each having a prescribed bandwidth that is no greater than the bandwidth of each of said licensed, differing bandwidth, disjoint RF user channels; and

(b) transmitting on one or more of said RF sub-channels of said overall RF bandwidth.

14. The improvement according to claim 13, wherein step (b) comprises controllably hopping among selected ones of said plurality of RF sub-channels and transmitting on said hopped ones of said plurality of RF sub-channels.

15. The improvement according to claim 14, wherein step (b) comprises transmitting an image-representative communication signal by way of said hopped ones of said plurality of RF sub-channels.

16. The improvement according to claim 13, wherein said disjoint RF user channels lie in one or more public service bands.