METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR WIRELESS CELLULAR INDOOR COMMUNICATIONS

• US 20080119198A1
• Filed: 11/19/2007
• Published: 05/22/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 11/20/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: RPX Corporation
• Original Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent SA (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: HETTSTEDT, Heinz-Dieter, Schomburg, Ekkehard, Munzner, Roland
• Granted Patent: US 8,032,148 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/453
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/06 Hybrid resource partitioning, e.g. channel borrowing
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/16 Central resource management; Negotiation of resources or communication parameters, e.g. negotiating bandwidth or QoS [Quality of Service]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/085 Access point devices with remote components

Abstract

The invention relates to a method for wireless cellular indoor communications, the method comprising at least one base station connected to a cell management unit through a first digital connection interface, the cell management unit connected to at least one RF hub through a second digital connection interface, and the at least one RF hub connected to at least one remote radio head through a third digital connection interface, the at least one remote radio head providing service in a certain cell area inside a confined environment, and the cell management unit comprising means for providing efficient load balancing at and between base stations through adaptive cell reconfiguration; means for mapping carriers, time, frequency or time-frequency allocations to individual radio heads; means for alignment of individual delays accumulated on the digital connections between the cell management unit and each of the radio heads; means for synchronization of the signals between the cell management unit and the individual remote radio heads; and means for failure detection of the individual digital links between the cell management unit and the remote radio heads.

Claims

1. A wireless cellular indoor communications system comprising at least one base station connected to a cell management unit through a first digital connection interface, the cell management unit connected to at least one RF hub through a second digital connection interface, and the at least one RF hub connected to at least one remote radio head through a third digital connection interface, the at least one remote radio head providing service in a certain cell area inside a confined environment,

the cell management unit comprising

means for providing efficient load balancing at and between base stations through adaptive cell reconfiguration,

means for mapping carriers, time, frequency or time-frequency allocations to individual radio heads,

means for alignment of individual delays accumulated on the digital connections between the cell management unit and each of the radio heads,

means for synchronization of the signals between the cell management unit and the individual remote radio heads,

means for failure detection of the individual digital links between the cell management unit and the remote radio heads.

2. The wireless cellular indoor communications system of claim 1, wherein the means for supporting efficient load balancing comprise means for shifting un-used carriers from remote radio heads inside areas of low traffic load to remote radio heads inside areas of high traffic load.

3. The wireless cellular indoor communications system of claim 2, wherein the means for shifting un-used carriers from remote radio heads inside areas of low traffic load to remote radio heads inside areas of high traffic load comprise

means for individual load identification for each carrier on each of the radio heads by air interface activity detection and interference sensing,

means for de-activation of un-used carriers per remote radio head on an individual basis;

means for shifting carriers from radio heads, where these carriers are not used for radio heads with high load on their active carriers,

means for activation of the shifted carriers at locations where the remote radio heads are loaded over a predetermined value.

4. The wireless cellular indoor communications system of claim 1, wherein the carriers, time, frequency or time-frequency allocations are identified through their MAC addresses or the connectors of the respective digital lines to which the radio heads are connected.

5. The wireless cellular indoor communications system of claim 1, wherein the first, second and third digital interface is an electrical or optical connection using Ethernet protocol.

6. A method for wireless cellular indoor communications, the method comprising

a base station transmitting or receiving call or data information to/from a cell management unit through a first digital connection interface,

the cell management unit transmitting or receiving call or data information to/from at least one RF hub through a second digital connection interface, and

the at least one RF hub transmitting or receiving call or data information to/from at least one remote radio head through a third digital connection interface, the at least one remote radio head providing service in a certain cell area inside a confined environment, and

the cell management unit

providing efficient load balancing at and between base stations through adaptive cell reconfiguration,

mapping carriers, time, frequency or time-frequency allocations to individual radio heads,

aligning individual delays accumulated on the digital connections between the cell management unit and each of the radio heads,

synchronizing signals between the cell management unit and the individual remote radio heads,

detecting failure of the individual digital links between the cell management unit and the remote radio heads.