Method and System for Distributed Communication

• US 20120057508A1
• Filed: 08/26/2011
• Published: 03/08/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 08/26/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Golba LLC
• Original Assignee: Golba LLC
• Inventors: Moshfeghi, Mehran
• Granted Patent: US 8,660,057 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/277
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/0064 with separate antennas for the more than one band H04B1/0053 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/0096 where a full band is frequency converted into another full band
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/28 the receiver comprising at least one semiconductor device having three or more electrodes
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/38 Transceivers, i.e. devices in which transmitter and receiver form a structural unit and in which at least one part is used for functions of transmitting and receiving
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/14 Relay systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 27/0002 analog front ends; means for connecting modulators, demodulators or transceivers to a transmission line duplex arrangements H04L5/143
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/1461 Suppression of signals in the return path, i.e. bidirectional control circuits
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/20 Master-slave selection or change arrangements

Abstract

A decentralized communication device is provided that facilitates optimal positioning and orientation of one or more antennas for wireless communication with external devices. The decentralized communication device includes one or more master components and one or more slave components. The master and the slave components are physically separate and communicate wirelessly. In some embodiments the slave acts as a carrier frequency translator between the master and an external wireless device, where it communicates with the external device using a first frequency and communicates with the master using a second frequency which is different from the first frequency. In another embodiment the slave has most or all the physical layer to do the digital coding, digital modulation, data framing, data formatting and data packetization for communicating with an external device, in which case digital coding and digital modulation is distributed between the master and the slave.

Claims

1. A communication device, comprising:

a master component comprising;

modem module; and

an antenna communicatively coupled to the modem module;

a slave components comprising;

a first antenna for wirelessly communicating with an external device using a first carrier frequency;

a second antenna for wirelessly communicating with the antenna of the master component using a second carrier frequency; and

a frequency converter for (i) converting signals received through the second antenna from the second frequency into the first frequency and (ii) signals received through the first antenna from the first frequency into the second frequency, wherein the first carrier frequency is lower than the second carrier frequency, wherein the first antenna is larger than the second antenna,

wherein the modem module is for (i) receiving digitally modulated signals and generating analog signals in the second carrier frequency for transmission by the antenna of the master component and (ii) receiving signals in the second carrier frequency from the antenna of the master component and performing analog to digital conversion on the received signals.

2. The communication device of claim 1, wherein the master component and the slave component are physically separate and each includes a separate power source.

3. The communication device of claim 1, wherein the master component, the slave component, and the external device are on separate integrated circuit (IC) chips included in an electronic device, wherein the electronic device uses the master, the salve, and the external device for chip-to-chip communication.

4. The communication device of claim 1, wherein the slave operates with one of wireless power and rechargeable batteries.

5. The communication device of claim 4, wherein the wireless power operates through one of radio frequency (RF) and magnetic induction.

6. The communication device of claim 1, wherein the master operates with one of wireless power and rechargeable batteries.

7. The communication device of claim 6, wherein the wireless power operates through one of radio frequency (RF) and magnetic induction.

8. The communication device of claim 1, wherein the master further comprises a baseband module communicatively coupled to the modem module, the baseband module for (i) receiving bits of digital information and sending digitally modulated signals to the modem module and (ii) receiving signals from the modem module and extracting bits of digital information.

9. The communication device of claim 1, wherein the slave further comprises a digital signal processing unit for digital coding, digital modulation, data framing, data formatting and data packetization for a standard or for conversion.

10. The communication device of claim 9, wherein the first wireless communication standard is one of WLAN 802.11*, 802.11ac, 802.11ad, cellular second generation (2G), cellular third generation (3G), cellular fourth generation (4G), Bluetooth, Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX), 60 GHz, HD Radio, and Ultra-wideband, wherein the second wireless standard is a different one of WLAN 802.11*, 802.11 ac, 802.11 ad, cellular second generation (2G), cellular third generation (3G), cellular fourth generation (4G), Bluetooth, Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX), 60 GHz, HD Radio, and Ultra-wideband.

11. The communication device of claim 1, wherein the master component further comprises a control unit and the slave component further comprises a control unit communicatively coupled to the master component control unit through a control channel for synchronization, gain control, programming, calibration and changing of parameters

12. The communication device of claim 1, wherein the slave component is a first slave component, wherein the communication device comprises a plurality of other slave components.

13. The communication device of claim 1, wherein the slave component further comprises:

a duplexer communicatively coupled to the first antenna, the duplexer for receiving signals from the first antenna and sending signals to the first antenna;

a power amplifier communicatively coupled to the duplexer, the power amplifier for amplifying signals sent to the duplexer; and

a low noise amplifier for amplifying signals received from the duplexer.

14. A communication device, comprising:

a master component comprising;

a processing unit; and

a plurality of antennas communicatively coupled to the processing unit;

a plurality of slave components, each slave component comprising;

a first antenna for wirelessly communicating with a plurality of external devices using a first carrier frequency;

a second antenna for wirelessly communicating with the plurality of antennas of the master component using a second carrier frequency; and

a frequency converter for (i) converting signals received through the second antenna from the second frequency into the first frequency and (ii) signals received through the first antenna from the first frequency into the second frequency, wherein the first carrier frequency is lower than the second carrier frequency, wherein the first antenna is larger than the second antenna,

wherein the processing unit of the master component is for dynamically selecting a set of slave components from the plurality of slave components to communicate with a set of external devices from the plurality of external devices based on a set of criteria.

15. The communication device of claim 14, wherein the processing unit is one of a DSP and a processor.

16. The communication device of claim 14, wherein the set of criteria comprises one of optimal bit error rate of signals exchanged between the master component and one or more slave components, signal to noise ratio of signals exchanged between the master component and one or more slave components, power consumption of the master component, power consumption of one or more slave components, optimal bit error rate of signals exchanged between one or more slave components and one or more external devices, signal to noise ratio of signals exchanged between one or more slave components and one or more external devices, and Electronic Vector Magnitude (EVM).

17. The communication device of claim 14, wherein the set of criteria comprises determining that communication between a first slave component and the master component has a performance that is below a threshold, wherein dynamically selecting the set of slave components comprises programming a second slave component as an intermediary to (i) receive signals from the master component and send the signals received from the master component to the first slave component and (ii) receive signals from the first slave component and send the signals received from the first slave component to the master component.

18. The communication device of claim 17, wherein dynamically selecting the set of slave components further comprises programming the first slave component to (i) receive signals from the second slave component and send the signals received from the second slave component to an external device and (ii) receive signals from the external device and send the signals received from the external device to the second slave component

19. The communication device of claim 14, wherein the master component communicates with a first slave component from the plurality of slave components using a first wireless communication standard, wherein the master component communicates with a second slave component from the plurality of slave components using a second wireless communication standard.

20. The communication device of claim 19, wherein the first wireless communication standard is one of WLAN 802.11*, 802.11ac, 802.11ad, cellular second generation (2G), cellular third generation (3G), cellular fourth generation (4G), Bluetooth, Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX), 60 GHz, HD Radio, and Ultra-wideband, wherein the second wireless standard is a different one of WLAN 802.11*, 802.11 ac, 802.11 ad, cellular second generation (2G), cellular third generation (3G), cellular fourth generation (4G), Bluetooth, Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX), 60 GHz, HD Radio, and Ultra-wideband.

21. The communication device of claim 14, wherein the master component further comprises a beam-forming module for communicating with the second antenna of each particular slave in the set of slaves using the unique combination of the RF delay, the signal phase, and the signal amplitude used by the particular slave.

22. The communication device of claim 21, wherein the beam-forming module is further for receiving signals with unique combination of RF delay, the signal phase, and the signal amplitude from each slave in the set of slaves and combining them into one communication channel.

23. The communication device of claim 21, wherein the master component further comprises a transmitter module, wherein the beam-forming module is integrated in the transmitter module of the master component.

24. The communication device of claim 14, wherein the master component is a first master component, wherein the communication device further comprises a set of master components other than the first master component, wherein the processing unit of the first master component is further for dynamically selecting one or more master components from the plurality of master components to directly communicate with the first master component.

25. A communication device, comprising:

a master component comprising;

a plurality of modem modules, each modem module for modulating and demodulating a carrier frequency in a plurality of carrier frequencies with digital information; and

an antenna communicatively coupled to the plurality of modem modules;

a slave component comprising;

a plurality of antennas for wirelessly communicating with an external device, each antenna in the plurality of antennas using a same particular frequency;

a particular antenna for wirelessly communicating with the antenna of the master component using a plurality of carrier frequencies, each carrier frequency in the plurality of carrier frequencies higher than the particular carrier frequency; and

a plurality of frequency converters, each frequency converter for (i) converting signals having one of the carrier frequencies in the plurality of carrier frequencies into the particular carrier frequency and (ii) converting signals with particular carrier frequency into one of the carrier frequencies in the plurality of carrier frequencies.

26. The communication device of claim 25, wherein the slave component further comprises a first duplexer for (i) receiving signals with carrier frequencies in the plurality of carrier frequencies from the plurality of frequency converters and sending each received signal to the particular antenna of the slave component and (ii) receiving signals with carrier frequencies in the plurality of carrier frequencies from the particular antenna and sending each received signals to the plurality of frequency converters.

27. The communication device of claim 25, wherein the slave component further comprises a second duplexer for (i) receiving signals with particular carrier frequency from the plurality of antennas of the slave components and sending the received signals to the plurality of frequency converts and (ii) receiving signals with particular carrier frequency from the plurality of frequency converters and (ii) sending the received signals to the plurality of antennas of the slave component.