Shared Radio Backhaul System
First Claim
1. A method of configuring a cellular wireless communications network comprising a first base station, a second base station, a further base station and a user equipment terminal, said network being located within an area of contiguous cellular wireless coverage, the method comprising:
- configuring said first base station in a first transmission mode to transceive signals with a user equipment terminal according to a first frame format;
configuring said second base station in a second transmission mode to transceive signals with a user equipment terminal and with the further base station according to a second frame format; and
configuring said further base station in the second transmission mode so as to transceive signals with a user equipment terminal and with the second base station according to the second frame format,in which the first frame format comprises a downlink portion for transmission of signals from the first base station to a user equipment terminal and an uplink portion for transmission of signals from said user equipment terminal to the first base station, and the transceiving of signals between said second and further base stations according to the second frame format occurs wholly within said downlink portion of the first frame format.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Embodiments of the invention relate to wireless communications networks, and more specifically to method and apparatus relating to wireless backhaul for cellular wireless systems. Increasing data capacity of cellular wireless systems places increasing demands on the capacity of the two way connection, known as backhaul, between a cellular base station and a telecommunications network such as the PSTN backhaul, since this is the connection that has to convey the wireless-originating traffic to its destination, often in an entirely different network. Known backhaul links include leased lines, microwave links, optical fibre links or radio resources for relaying backhaul traffic between base stations. The fixed line solutions are expensive to implement and maintain, while the radio solutions suffer from interference from transmissions between base stations with transmissions from user equipment to base stations which are not communicating with other base stations. In embodiments of the invention, the relaying of access data between base stations utilises radio resources other than radio resources used by transmissions from user equipment within an area of contiguous wireless coverage. The benefit of this approach is that it provides a means of avoiding interference between inter-base station transmissions and user equipment to base station transmissions.
55 Citations
19 Claims
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1. A method of configuring a cellular wireless communications network comprising a first base station, a second base station, a further base station and a user equipment terminal, said network being located within an area of contiguous cellular wireless coverage, the method comprising:
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configuring said first base station in a first transmission mode to transceive signals with a user equipment terminal according to a first frame format; configuring said second base station in a second transmission mode to transceive signals with a user equipment terminal and with the further base station according to a second frame format; and configuring said further base station in the second transmission mode so as to transceive signals with a user equipment terminal and with the second base station according to the second frame format, in which the first frame format comprises a downlink portion for transmission of signals from the first base station to a user equipment terminal and an uplink portion for transmission of signals from said user equipment terminal to the first base station, and the transceiving of signals between said second and further base stations according to the second frame format occurs wholly within said downlink portion of the first frame format. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. A system for transceiving signals in a cellular wireless communications network, the cellular wireless communications network comprising a first base station, a second base station, a further base station and a user equipment terminal, said network being located within an area of contiguous cellular wireless coverage,
the system being arranged such that signals are transceived between the first base station and a user equipment terminal according to a first frame format and signals are transceived between the second base station and a user equipment terminal and the further base station according to a second frame format, wherein the first frame format comprises a downlink portion for transmission of signals from the first base station to a user equipment terminal and an uplink portion for transmitting signals from said user equipment terminal to the first base station, and the transceiving of signals between said second and further base stations according to the second frame format occurs wholly within said downlink portion of the first frame format.
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17. A method of configuring a cellular wireless communications network comprising a first base station, a second base station, a third base station and a user equipment terminal, said network being located within an area of contiguous cellular wireless coverage, the method comprising:
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receiving a first message apportioning radio resource for particular types of transmission at said first base station and said second base station; receiving a second message apportioning radio resource for particular types of transmission at the third base station and the user equipment terminal; transmitting first signals from said user equipment terminal to said third base station in a first radio resource allocation apportioned in said message; and transceiving second signals between said first base station and said second base station in a second radio resource allocation apportioned in said message, where the second radio resource allocation does not overlap with the first radio resource allocation.
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18. A method of configuring a cellular wireless communications network comprising a first base station, a second base station, and a user equipment terminal, said network being located within an area of contiguous cellular wireless coverage, the method comprising:
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configuring said first base station in a first transmission mode to transceive signals with a user equipment terminal according to a first frame format; and configuring said first base station in a second transmission mode to transceive signals with the user equipment terminal and a second base station according to a second frame format, in which the first frame format comprises a downlink portion for transmission of signals from the first base station to a user equipment terminal and an uplink portion for transmission of signals from said user equipment terminal to the first base station, and the transceiving of signals between said first and second base stations according to the second frame format occurs wholly within said downlink portion of the first frame format. - View Dependent Claims (19)
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Specification