SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR WIRELESS COMMUNICATION IN A FREQUENCY DIVISION DUPLEXING REGION

• US 20080102779A1
• Filed: 01/04/2008
• Published: 05/01/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 09/14/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Zarbana Digital Fund LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Original Assignee: Harington Valve LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Inventors: Stanwood, Kenneth, Klein, Israel
• Granted Patent: US 7,839,805 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/323
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/2621 using frequency division multiple access [FDMA] H04B7/2615 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/2656 for structure of frame, burst
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/2687 Inter base stations synchronisation

Abstract

A method and system for using half-duplex base stations and half-duplex nodes in a Frequency Division Duplexing region to provide wireless connectivity between the half-duplex base stations and customers in multiple sectors of a cell. The method and system can use two physical channels to form two logical channels. Each logical channel shares both physical channels during alternating frames of time. The half-duplex nodes can include a millimeter-wave band frequency synthesizer configured to transmit and receive on different channels to and from the half-duplex base station. Re-use patterns of the physical channels are used for deployment of half-duplex base stations and half-duplex nodes in the FDD region to minimize co-channel interference and interference due to uncorrelated rain fade. Additional methods and systems utilize full-duplex base stations and smart antenna to communicate with the half-duplex nodes.

Claims

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133. The apparatus of claim 32 further comprising means for providing a reference signal to assist the means for alternatingly down-converting and up-converting, wherein a difference between the first and second radio frequency ranges is established by a fixed offset.

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74. A wireless node comprising:

a half-duplex modem configured to alternate in demodulating incoming data and modulating outgoing data; and

an outdoor unit coupled to the half-duplex modem, the outdoor unit comprising;

an intermediate frequency module configured to alternate between up converting the outgoing data from the half-duplex modem and down converting the incoming data,

a radio frequency module coupled to the intermediate frequency module and configured to alternate between up converting the outgoing data received from the intermediate frequency module and down converting the incoming data received from a base station, and

a millimeter-wave band frequency synthesizer coupled to the radio frequency module and configured to alternate between transmitting the outgoing data over a first channel and receiving the incoming data over a second channel.

75. A wireless node comprising:

an antenna;

a radio frequency (“

RF”

) module in communication with the antenna and configured to alternate between down converting an incoming signal received by the antenna on a first radio frequency to an intermediate frequency and up converting an outgoing signal to a second radio frequency;

a first switch connected to the RF module and configured to select between routing the incoming signal away from the RF module and routing the outgoing signal to the RF module;

an intermediate frequency (“

IF”

) module coupled to the first switch and configured to alternate between down converting the incoming signal from the intermediate frequency to a base band frequency and up converting the outgoing signal from the base band frequency to the intermediate frequency;

a second switch coupled to the IF module and configured to select between routing the incoming signal away from the IF module and routing the outgoing signal to the IF module; and

a modem in communication with the second switch and configured to alternate between demodulating the incoming signal at the base band frequency and modulating the outgoing signal at the base band frequency.

76. The system of claim 75, wherein the RF module includes a duplexer configured to switch between the first radio frequency and the second radio frequency, and an RF down conversion module configured to down convert the incoming signal to the intermediate frequency, and an RF up conversion module configured to up convert the outgoing signal to the second radio frequency.

77. The system of claim 76, wherein the RF module includes a millimeter-wave band frequency synthesizer configured to offset the first radio frequency from the second radio frequency.

78. The system of claim 75, wherein the IF module includes an IF down conversion module configured to down convert the incoming signal to the base band frequency, an IF up conversion module configured to up convert the outgoing signal to the intermediate frequency.

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116. A system comprising:

a half-duplex modem configured to modulate and demodulate data signals; and

an outdoor unit coupled to the half-duplex modem and an antenna, the outdoor unit configured to receive the incoming modulated data signal from a base station in a first time frame and to cause the antenna to transmit the outgoing modulated data signal to the base station in a second time frame different from the first time frame.

117. The system of claim 116 wherein the outdoor unit is configured to alternatingly:

down-convert, from a first radio frequency range to a baseband frequency range, an incoming modulated data signal received from the antenna, and to pass the converted incoming modulated data signal to a half-duplex modem; and

up-convert an outgoing modulated data signal received from the half-duplex modem from the baseband frequency range to a second radio frequency range and to cause the antenna to transmit the converted outgoing modulated data signal.

118. The system of claim 116 wherein the outdoor unit includes a Radio Frequency (RF) module coupled to the antenna and configured to alternate between down-converting the incoming modulated data signal to an intermediate frequency range and up-converting the outgoing modulated data signal to the second radio frequency range.

119. The system of claim 118 wherein the outdoor unit includes an Intermediate Frequency Module (IF) coupled to the RF module and the half-duplex modem and configured to receive, from the RF module, the incoming modulated data signal down-converted to the intermediate frequency range and to further-down-convert the incoming modulated data signal to the baseband frequency range.

120. The system of claim 118 wherein the outdoor unit includes an Intermediate Frequency (IF) module coupled to the RF module and the half-duplex modem and configured to receive, from the half-duplex modem, the outgoing modulated data signal at the baseband frequency range and to up-convert the outgoing modulated data signal to the intermediate frequency range and pass the outgoing modulated data signal to the RF module.

121. The system of claim 118 wherein the RF module includes a duplexer coupled to the antenna and configured to alternatingly switch between the first radio frequency range and the second radio frequency range to alternate between causing the antenna to transmit the incoming modulated data signal and receiving the outgoing modulated data signal, respectively.

122. The system of claim 118 wherein the RF module includes an RF down-conversion module configured to down-convert the incoming modulated data signal to the intermediate frequency range, and an RF up-conversion module configured to up-convert the outgoing modulated data signal from the intermediate frequency range to the second radio frequency range.

123. The system of claim 122 wherein the RF module further comprises a RF synthesizer coupled to the RF down-conversion module and the RF up-conversion module, the RF synthesizer configured to provide a reference signal to the RF down-conversion module and to provide the reference signal plus a fixed offset to the RF up-conversion module to assist the RF down-conversion module down-convert the incoming modulated data signal from the first radio frequency range to the intermediate frequency range and to assist the RF up-conversion module up-convert the outgoing modulated data signal from the intermediate frequency range to the second radio frequency range, the frequency difference between the first radio frequency range and the second radio frequency range determined by the fixed offset.

124. The system of claim 117 wherein the outdoor unit includes an Intermediate Frequency (IF) module coupled to the half-duplex modem and configured to up-convert the outgoing modulated data signal received from the half-duplex modem to an intermediate frequency range and configured to down-convert the incoming modulated data signal from the intermediate frequency range to the baseband frequency range.

125. The system of claim 124 wherein the IF module includes an IF down-conversion module configured to down-convert the incoming modulated data signal from the intermediate frequency range to the baseband frequency range, an IF up-conversion module configured to up-convert the outgoing modulated data signal to the intermediate frequency range, and an IF synthesizer configured to provide a reference signal to the IF down-conversion module and the IF up-conversion module.

126. A method comprising:

receiving, by a half-duplex wireless node, an incoming modulated data signal from a base station on a first radio frequency range in a first time frame; and

transmitting by the outdoor unit an outgoing modulated data signal to the base station on a second radio frequency range in a second time frame different from the first time frame.

127. The method of claim 126 further comprising alternatingly:

down-converting, by an outdoor unit of the half-duplex wireless node, the incoming modulated data signal from the first radio frequency range to a baseband frequency range after receipt of said incoming modulated data signal; and

up-converting, by the outdoor unit, the outgoing modulated data signal from the baseband frequency range to the second radio frequency range.

128. The method of claim 127 wherein the alternatingly up-converting and down-converting corresponds to the transmitting in a first time frame and the receiving in a second time frame, respectively.

129. The method of claim 128 further comprising providing, by a synthesizer of the outdoor unit, a reference signal to assist in the down-converting and up-converting wherein a difference between the first and second radio frequency ranges is established by a fixed offset applied to the reference signal when either up-converting or when down-converting.

130. An apparatus comprising:

means for receiving an incoming modulated data signal from a base station on a first radio frequency range in a first time frame; and

means for transmitting an outgoing modulated data signal to the base station on a second radio frequency range in a second time frame different from the first time frame.

131. The apparatus of claim 130 further comprising means for alternatingly:

down-converting the incoming modulated data signal from the first radio frequency range to a baseband frequency range after receipt of said incoming modulated data signal; and

up-converting the outgoing modulated data signal from the baseband frequency range to the second radio frequency range.

132. The apparatus of claim 131 wherein the means for alternatingly up-converting and down-converting is configured to up-convert in the first time frame and down-convert in the second time frame.