Distributed antenna communications system

• US 20090005096A1
• Filed: 06/26/2007
• Published: 01/01/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/26/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: CommScope Technologies, LLC (CommScope Holding Company, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Tyco Electronics Services GmbH (TE Connectivity Ltd. (United Kingdom))
• Inventors: Scheinert, Stefan
• Granted Patent: US 8,010,116 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/513
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0691 using subgroups of transmit antennas
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0874 using subgroups of receive antennas
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/085 Access point devices with remote components

Abstract

A distributed antenna system comprises a base transceiver station, a plurality of distributed antenna units and a signal routing apparatus. The base transceiver station has a plurality of output ports that generate a plurality of downlink signals having overlapping transmit frequencies and containing different communication content. The different communication content is directed toward each of a plurality of mobile units. The base transceiver station also has at least one uplink receive port that receives an uplink signal. The uplink signal includes communication content received from at least one of the mobile units. The plurality of distributed antenna units have coverage areas that are non-overlapping or only partially overlapping. The signal routing apparatus routes the downlink signals to the plurality of distributed antennas such that each of the plurality of downlink signals are transmitted by one or more of the distributed antennas and each distributed antenna only transmits one of the downlink signals.

Claims

1. A distributed antenna system comprising:

a base transceiver station having a plurality of output ports that generate a plurality of downlink signals having overlapping transmit frequencies and containing different communication content, the different communication content being directed toward each of a plurality of mobile units and the base transceiver station having at least one uplink receive port that receives an uplink signal, the uplink signal including communication content received from at least one of the mobile units;

a plurality of distributed antenna units having coverage areas that are non-overlapping or only partially overlapping; and

a signal routing apparatus for routing the downlink signals to the plurality of distributed antennas, such that each of the plurality of downlink signals are transmitted by one or more of the distributed antennas and each distributed antenna only transmits one of the downlink signals.

2. The distributed antenna system according to claim 1, wherein the uplink signal includes communication content from each of the plurality of mobile units.

3. The distributed antenna system according to claim 1, wherein the base transceiver comprises a plurality of receive ports that receive a plurality of uplink signals having overlapping frequencies, and containing different communication content received from each of the plurality of mobile units.

4. The distributed antenna system according to claim 1, wherein the signal routing apparatus comprises a reconfigurable switch for selectively routing the downlink signals to the distributed antennas.

5. The distributed antenna system according to claim 4, further comprising means for reconfiguring the reconfigurable switch, wherein the means for reconfiguring automatically senses connections to the base transceiver station.

6. The distributed antenna system according to claim 4, further comprising means for reconfiguring the reconfigurable switch, wherein the means for reconfiguring accepts user input for selecting among permissible configurations of the reconfigurable switch.

7. The distributed antenna system according to claim 1, wherein the signal routing apparatus comprises one or more hard-wired signal splitters for routing the downlink transmit signals to the distributed antennas.

8. The distributed antenna system according to claim 1, wherein downlink and uplink signals are time division duplexed at each of the antennas.

9. The distributed antenna system according to claim 1, wherein downlink and uplink signals are frequency division duplexed at each of the antennas.

10. The reconfigurable distributed antenna system according to claim 1, wherein the distributed antennas are located indoors.

11. The distributed antenna system according to claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of downlink signals are transmitted by a group of the distributed antennas and the signal routing apparatus is configured to minimize boundaries between coverage areas of the groups of antennas.

12. The distributed antenna system according to claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of downlink signals are transmitted by a group of the distributed antennas and the signal routing apparatus is configured to maximize boundaries between coverage areas of the groups of antennas.

13. The distributed antenna system according to claim 3, wherein the signal routing apparatus routes the uplink signals from the plurality of distributed antennas to the plurality of receive ports of the base transceiver station such that each of the plurality of uplink signals are received from a group of the distributed antennas.

14. The distributed antenna system according to claim 13, wherein the signal routing apparatus is configured to maximize boundaries between coverage areas of the groups of antennas.

15. The distributed antenna system according to claim 13, wherein the signal routing apparatus is configured to minimize boundaries between coverage areas of the groups of antennas.

16. The distributed antenna system according to claim 1, further comprising at least one co-located antenna, the co-located antenna being co-located with one of the distributed antennas and the co-located antenna transmitting a different one of the downlink signals from that transmitted by the distributed antenna with which the co-located antenna is co-located.

17. A distributed antenna system comprising:

a base transceiver station having at least one output port that generates a downlink signal including communication content directed to at least one of a mobile units and the base transceiver station having a plurality of receive ports that receive a plurality of uplink signals having overlapping frequencies and containing different communication content received from each of the plurality of mobile units;

a plurality of distributed antenna units having coverage areas that are non-overlapping or only partially overlapping; and

a signal routing apparatus for routing the uplink signals from the plurality of distributed antennas to the plurality of receive ports of the base transceiver station, such that each of the plurality of uplink signals are received from two or more of the distributed antennas.

18. The distributed antenna system according to claim 17, wherein the signal routing apparatus comprises a reconfigurable switch for selectively routing the uplink signals from the plurality of distributed antennas to the plurality of receive ports of the base transceiver station.

19. The distributed antenna system according to claim 17, further comprising means for reconfiguring the reconfigurable switch, wherein the means for reconfiguring automatically senses connections to the base transceiver station.

20. A distributed antenna system comprising:

a plurality of distributed antennas; and

a multi-port hub comprising;

a first interface for connection to a base station of a telecommunications system, the first interface comprising a plurality of downlink ports for receiving communications from the base transceiver station and a plurality of uplink ports for sending communications to the base transceiver station;

a second interface having downlink ports for sending communications to each of the plurality of antennas and the first interface having uplink ports for receiving communications from each of the plurality of antennas; and

means for reconfiguring the hub among a plurality of predetermined configurations, each configuration routing one or more downlink ports of the first interface to a selected group of the downlink ports of the second interface and routing a selected group of the uplink ports of the second interface to one or more of the uplink ports of the first interface.

21. The reconfigurable distributed antenna system according to claim 20, wherein the means for reconfiguring comprises a cross bar switch.

22. The reconfigurable distributed antenna system according to claim 20, wherein the means for reconfiguring comprises combiners and splitters.

23. The reconfigurable distributed antenna system according to claim 20, wherein the means for reconfiguring automatically senses connections to the base transceiver station.

24. The reconfigurable distributed antenna system according to claim 20, there being an greater number of downlink ports of the second interface than downlink ports of the first interface.

25. The reconfigurable distributed antenna system according to claim 20, there being a greater number of uplink ports of the second interface than uplink ports of the first interface.

26. The reconfigurable distributed antenna system according to claim 20, there being four uplink and four downlink ports of the first interface.

27. The reconfigurable distributed antenna system according to claim 20, there being eight uplink and eight downlink ports of the second interface.

28. The reconfigurable distributed antenna system according to claim 20, further comprising the base station and the base station configured for parallel uplink and downlink signals.

29. The reconfigurable distributed antenna system according to claim 20, wherein the distributed antennas are located indoors.