FAST MACRODIVERSITY SWITCHING IN MOBILE WIRELESS NETWORKS

• US 20070066330A1
• Filed: 08/31/2006
• Published: 03/22/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 12/28/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rateze Remote Mgmt. L.L.C. (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Original Assignee: Northstar Acquisitions LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Inventors: Koepf, Gerhard, Chillariga, Gopal, Kaushal, Rohit, Dharia, Bhupal, Ghoshtagore, Ujjal, Uyehara, Lance
• Granted Patent: US 7,551,595 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/509
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/7143 Arrangements for generation of hop patterns
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/715 Interference-related aspects
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 2001/7154 with means for preventing interference
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/022 Site diversity; Macro-diversity using two or more spaced independent antennas H04B7/04
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0602 using antenna switching H04B7/0686 takes precedence; antenna beam directivity switching H01Q3/24
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/10 Dynamic resource partitioning
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/08 Reselecting an access point

Abstract

Fast macrodiversity switching (FMS) of channels that employ interleaving. The fast macrodiversity switching dynamically switches radio links used for traffic and control channels for a mobile station among a number of base transceiver stations (BTS) without switching the radio resource, using the same frequency and time slot combination (TDMA) in an environment where interleaving is occurring. The fast macrodiversity switching of channels and interleave processing is under control of an interleave manager which is distributed among zone managers. The control by the host and assistant zone managers includes switching down-link signals to and up-link signals from mobile stations among base transceiver stations which include broadcast channels (non-switched) and dedicated (switched) channels that employ interleaving. The dedicated channels are switched as frequently as a signal switch time which can be the frame rate of the up-link signals. The switch time is typically less than 1 second for mobile stations in a GSM system. The interleave processing is implemented in a GSM wireless system for TCH/FS Processing, FACCH/FS Processing and SACCH/FS Processing.

Claims

1-61. -61. (canceled)

62. A communication system, comprising:

a mobile station;

a plurality of transceiver stations, each comprising a plurality of channels, the plurality of transceiver stations adapted to send and receive wireless signals to and from the mobile station, said wireless signals comprising segments having one or more component segments;

at least one interleave to change the order of segments between a normal order and an interleaved order prior to sending; and

at least one zone manager, comprising;

a processor to select among the plurality of transceiver stations;

a controller to dynamically switch among said selected transceiver stations, said switching resulting in one or more of said component segments being unavailable for processing at a common location; and

a segment processor to enable the processing of one or more of said component segments to substantially assemble the component segments at a common location.

63. The communication system of claim 62, wherein said communication system comprises a GSM system.

64. The communication system of claim 62, further comprising:

one or more additional mobile stations having a zone manager, wherein the zone manager is adapted to function as a host zone manager for said one or more mobile stations, and function as an assistant zone manager for said one or more additional mobile stations.

65. The communication system of claim 62, wherein said controller is responsive to said processor information to dynamically switch in accordance with a signal switch time determined as a function of a frame rate of an up-link signal.

66. The communication system of claim 65, wherein said switch time is determined based at least in part on an up-link signal frame rate of said up-link signal.

67. The communication system of claim 66, wherein said switch time is determined based at least in part on a multiple of a frame rate of said up-link signals.

68. The communication system of claim 65, wherein said switch time is less than 1 second.

69. The communication system of claim 62, wherein said zone manager comprises a zone manager for each of said plurality of transceiver stations.

70. The communication system of claim 69, wherein said zone managers are co-located with said transceiver stations at macrodiverse locations.

71. The communication system of claim 70, wherein said zone managers are interconnected with each other forming a network.

72. The communication system of claim 69, wherein two or more of said zone managers are co-located at a common location.

73. The communication system of claim 72, wherein said common location is a base station controller in a cellular system.

74. The communication system of claim 69, wherein said transceiver stations comprise:

a plurality of macro-diverse broadcasters distributed at macro-diverse broadcaster locations for broadcasting said down-link signals; and

a plurality of macro-diverse collectors distributed at macro-diverse collector locations for receiving said uplink signals and providing received signals for said particular mobile station.

75. The communication system of claim 74, wherein said zone manager is responsive to said host processor information for switching said particular dedicated channel.

76. The communication system of claim 62, wherein each of said transceiver stations includes a zone manager, comprising:

a controller including a resource manager for managing available resources in said communication system;

an airlink controller for controlling the radio channels in said communication system; and

an interface unit for providing interfaces for said particular one of said zone managers.

77. The communication system of claim 76, wherein said interface unit includes a zone manager-to-zone manager interface manager for controlling zone manager links among said zone managers.

78. The communication system of claim 76, wherein said interface unit includes a transceiver interface for controlling a transceiver link from said particular one of said zone managers to a corresponding transceiver station.

79. The communication system of claim 76, wherein said communication system includes a controller link connected to said base station controller, to one of said transceiver stations and to one or more of said zone managers.

80. The communication system of claim 79, wherein said controller link comprises an Abis link.

81. The communication system of claim 79, wherein one or more of said zone managers is integrated into one or more of said transceiver stations.

82. The communication system of claim 62, wherein said controller includes broadcaster commands for controlling the down-link signals to each of selected ones of said mobile stations and collector commands for controlling the plurality of macro-diverse collectors for switching the up-link signals for each of other selected ones of said mobile stations.

83. The communication system of claim 62, wherein said wireless signals employ multiple access protocols.

84. The communication system of claim 83, wherein said wireless signals employ TDMA protocols.

85. The communication system of claim 62, wherein said transceiver stations communicate over a region containing one or more zones.

86. The communication system of claim 62, wherein said split segment processor operates for TCH/FS signals in a GSM system.

87. The communication system of claim 62, wherein said zone manager is formed of a plurality of zone managers, one for each of said transceiver stations, and said split segment processor operates for TCH/FS signals.

88. The communication system of claim 76, wherein said zone managers include a host zone manager associated with a host transceiver station and wherein said split segments and other of said segments are sent to said host zone manager and said host transceiver station for decoding uplink SACCH/FS signals.

89. The communication system of claim 88, wherein said zone managers include a host zone manager associated with a host transceiver station and wherein said segments including soft bits are sent to said host zone manager and said host transceiver station for decoding said uplink SACCH/FS signals using said soft bits.

90. The communication system of claim 89, wherein said zone managers include a host zone manager associated with a host transceiver station and one or more assistant zone managers associated with one or more assistant transceiver stations and wherein said segments including soft bits are sent to said host so zone manager and to one of said assistant zone managers and a corresponding assistant transceiver station for decoding said uplink SACCH/FS signals using said soft bits.

91. A method, comprising:

receiving wireless signals at one or more of a plurality of transceiver station, said wireless signals including a plurality of segments, said segments having one or more component segments;

altering the order of said segments between a normal order and an interleaved order;

determining one or more preferred transceiver stations for a particular mobile station;

dynamically switching among said one or more preferred ones of said transceiver stations, said switching resulting in one or more of said component segments being unavailable for processing at a single transceiver; and

transmitting at least a portion of the component segments to a single transceiver to enable the reassembly of the component segments into split segments.

92. The method of claim 91, wherein said dynamically switching further comprises switching as frequently as a signal switch time determined as a function of a signal frame rate.

93. The method of claim 92, wherein said switch time is approximately an up-link signal frame rate of said unlink signals.

94. The method of claim 92, wherein said switch time is a multiple of said up-link signal frame rate.

95. The method of claim 92, wherein said switch time is less than 1 second.

96. The method of claim 91, wherein altering the order of said segments further comprises changing the order of said segments in accordance with an interleaving algorithm.

97. A zone manager, comprising:

a processor providing processor information to select among a plurality of transceiver stations to exchange wireless signals with a particular mobile station, the wireless signals comprising segments having one or more component segments;

a controller to dynamically switch among said selected transceiver stations, said switching resulting in one or more of said component segments being unavailable for processing at a common location; and

a segment processor to enable the processing of one or more of said component segments to substantially assemble the component segments at a common location.

98. The zone manager of claim 97, wherein the zone manager is adapted to function as a host zone manager for one or more mobile stations, and function as an assistant zone manager for one or more additional mobile stations.

99. The zone manager of claim 97, wherein the controller is responsive to the processor information to switch said dedicated channels in accordance with a signal switch time determined as a function of a frame rate of an up-link signal.

100. The zone manager of claim 99, wherein said switch time is determined based at least in part on an up-link signal frame rate of said up-link signal.

101. The zone manager of claim 99, wherein said switch time is determined based at least in part on a multiple of a frame rate of said up-link signals.

102. The zone manager of claim 97, wherein said transceiver stations comprise:

a plurality of macro-diverse broadcasters distributed at macro-diverse broadcaster locations for broadcasting said down-link signals; and

a plurality of macro-diverse collectors distributed at macro-diverse collector locations for receiving said up-link signals and providing received signals for said particular mobile station.

103. The zone manager of claim 97, wherein said zone manager is responsive to the processor information for switching said particular dedicated channel.

104. The zone manager of claim 97, wherein said interface unit includes a zone manager-to-zone manager interface manager for controlling zone manager links among said zone managers.

105. The zone manager of claim 97, wherein said interface unit includes a transceiver interface for controlling a transceiver link from said particular one of said zone managers to a corresponding transceiver station.

106. The zone manager of claim 97, wherein said wireless signals employ multiple access protocols.

107. The zone manager of claim 97, wherein said wireless signals employ TDMA protocols.

108. The zone manager of claim 97, wherein said split segment processor operates for TCH/FS signals in a GSM system.