Method for routing via access terminals

• US 20090252088A1
• Filed: 09/30/2008
• Published: 10/08/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 04/02/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: RPX Corporation
• Original Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent SA (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Rao, Sudarshan A., Vasudevan, Subramanian
• Granted Patent: US 8,520,559 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/328
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/04 adapted for relaying to or from another terminal or user

Abstract

An access-terminal routing methodology is provided that may be used to enable a wireless, meshed backhaul between base stations using existing wireless-access resources (time, bandwidth, code-space, power), protocols, and base station infrastructure. Accordingly, the invention provides a means to extend the coverage of existing networks by adding standalone base stations without wired or specialized wireless backhaul.

Claims

1. In a wireless communication system including an access terminal and at least two base stations, a method for providing a communications path between a first base station and a second base station via the access terminal comprising the steps of:

providing the access terminal with a transmission/reception capability complementary with that of both the first and second base stations; and

causing the access terminal to receive a message transmitted by the first base station and in turn retransmit the message to the second base station.

2. The method of claim 1 including the further step of:

providing at least one of the base stations with a capability to locate and route messages from source to intended destination.

3. The method of claim 1 including the further step of:

providing an enabling protocol to enable access terminals and networks to negotiate and cooperate among one another.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the access terminal is enabled to operate in separate modes, a first mode being said receipt of a message from a first base station and retransmittal of the message to the second base station (hereafter “

backhaul mode”

), and a second mode characterized by receiving a message transmitted by at least one of the base stations and in turn transmitting a response message to the at least one base station (hereafter “

access mode”

).

5. The method of claim 4 wherein air-interface resources are dynamically shared between the access and backhaul modes using a single set of device protocols.

11. The access terminal of claim 1 wherein the access terminal is owned and operated by a service provider of a wireless communication system including at least one of the first and second base stations.

12. The access terminal of claim 2 wherein the uplink and downlink are Frequency Division Duplexed.

13. The access terminal of claim 2 further including a determination by the access terminal of supportable data rates on each uplink-downlink channel pair based on control signaling transmitted between itself and ones of the first and second base stations.

14. The access terminal of claim 13 wherein the access terminal reports said supportable data rates in response to a solicitation for operation in the backhaul mode by the access terminal.

15. The access terminal of claim 2 established at a given location to provide wireless system coverage extension.

16. The access terminal of claim 2 wherein at least one of the first and second base stations is a Femtocell and the access terminal provides signaling and control for autoconfiguring the Femtocell.

17. The access terminal of claim 2 wherein the access terminal is established to monitor and report measurements and alarms for at least one of the first and second base stations.

6. An access terminal established to concurrently transmit via a wireless medium two or more independent streams of data to two or more base stations, each data stream being transmitted to a different base station.

7. The access terminal of claim 6 further established to concurrently receive two or more independent data streams from base stations to which the access terminal is transmitting data.

8. The access terminal of claim 7 wherein the access terminal transmits data received by it on a downlink from one base station via an uplink to another base station.

9. The access terminal of claim 8 further including a selector in the access terminal operative to determine the uplink on which data received on a particular downlink is to be transmitted.

10. The access terminal of claim 8 wherein the data received on a particular downlink is retransmitted on more than one uplink