VIRTUAL AGGREGATION OF FRAGMENTED WIRELESS SPECTRUM

• US 20120224646A1
• Filed: 03/04/2011
• Published: 09/06/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 03/04/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nokia Technologies Oy (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent SA (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Purohit, Vinay, Wilford, Paul A.
• Granted Patent: US 9,686,062 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 375/259
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/001 the frequencies being arranged in component carriers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0044 allocation of payload
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/06 the signals being represented by different frequencies combined with time-division multiplexing H04L5/26

Abstract

Method and apparatus for aggregating spectrum in which multiple disjoint blocks of spectrum may be configured as one virtual contiguous block of spectrum by modulating onto each disjoint blocks of spectrum a respective portion of a data stream in which the data rate associated with the modulated portion is compatible with the available bandwidth of the disjoint spectrum block upon which is modulated.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

dividing a data stream into a plurality of sub-streams, each of said sub-streams associated a respective spectral fragment and having a data rate compatible with a bandwidth of the respective spectral fragment;

modulating each of the sub-streams to provide a modulated signal adapted for transmission via the respective spectral fragment; and

upconverting said modulated signals onto respective spectral fragments of at least one carrier signal;

wherein the sub-streams included within the upconverted modulated signals are adapted to be demodulated and combined at a receiver to recover thereby data stream.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising combining two or more of the modulated sub-streams to form respective combined sub-streams, each of said combined sub-streams being modulated onto a modulated signal adapted for transmission via a spectral fragment having a bandwidth compatible with the total effective data rate of combined sub-streams.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising transmitting said carrier signals via respective channels within a communications system.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein each of said one or more carrier signals is supported by a respective transponder within a satellite communications system.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein each of said one or more carrier signals is supported by a respective microwave link within a microwave communications system.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein each of said one of more carrier signals is supported by a respective wireless channel within a wireless communications system.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein said dividing a data stream into a plurality of sub-streams comprises:

encapsulating sequential portions of said data stream into payload portions of respective encapsulating packets, each of said sequential portions of said data stream being associated with a respective sequence number included within a header portion of the respective encapsulating packet; and

including each encapsulating packet within a respective sub-stream.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein said dividing a data stream into a plurality of sub-streams comprises:

encapsulating sequential portions of said data stream into payload portions of respective encapsulating packets, each of said sequential portions of said data stream being associated with a respective sequence number included within a header portion of the respective encapsulating packet; and

including each encapsulating packet within one or more of said sub-streams.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein said sequence number is represented by a field having at least 14 bits.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein said encapsulating packet header further includes a hexadecimal 47 in a first byte.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving each of the modulated sub-streams via respective spectral fragments;

demodulating each of the modulated sub-streams;

combining the demodulated sub-streams to recover the data stream.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein combining the demodulated sub-streams to recover the data stream comprises:

ordering encapsulating packets received via one or more sub-streams according to their respective sequence numbers; and

extracting sequential portions of said data stream from said ordered encapsulating packets to recover thereby said data stream.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising discarding encapsulating packets having a sequence number matching the sequence number of a recently received encapsulating packet.

14. Apparatus, comprising:

a splitter, for dividing a data stream into a plurality of sub-streams, each of said sub-streams associated a respective spectral fragment and having a data rate compatible with a bandwidth of the respective spectral fragment;

a plurality of modulators, each modulator configured to modulate a respective sub-stream to provide a modulated signal adapted for transmission via the respective spectral fragment; and

at least one upconverter, for upconverting said modulated signals onto respective spectral fragments of at least one carrier signal;

wherein the sub-streams included within the upconverted modulated signals are adapted to be demodulated and combined at a receiver to recover thereby data stream.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein said splitter comprises:

an encapsulator, for encapsulating sequential portions of said data stream into payload portions of respective encapsulating packets, each of said sequential portions of said data stream being associated with a respective sequence number included within a header portion of the respective encapsulating packet; and

a master scheduler, for selectively routing encapsulated packets towards the demodulators.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein said splitter further comprises a plurality of sub schedulers, each of said sub schedulers adapted to route packets received from the master scheduler toward a respective modulator.

17. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein said master scheduler routes packets according to one of a random routing algorithm and a round robin routing algorithm.

18. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein said master scheduler routes packets according to one of a customer preference algorithm and a service provider preference algorithm, wherein each sub-stream is associated with a respective weight.

19. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the respective weight of a sub-stream is defined by one or more of a preferred spectral fragment, a preferred spectral fragment type, the preferred communication channel, a preferred communication channel type, a preferred traffic type and a preferred customer.

20. A computer readable medium including software instructions which, when executed by a processer, perform a method comprising:

dividing a data stream into a plurality of sub-streams, each of said sub-streams associated a respective spectral fragment and having a data rate compatible with a bandwidth of the respective spectral fragment;

modulating each of the sub-streams to provide a modulated signal adapted for transmission via the respective spectral fragment; and

upconverting said modulated signals onto respective spectral fragments of at least one carrier signal;

wherein the sub-streams included within the upconverted modulated signals are adapted to be demodulated and combined at a receiver to recover thereby data stream.

21. A computer program product, wherein a computer is operative to process software instructions which adapt the operation of the computer such that computer performs a method comprising:

dividing a data stream into a plurality of sub-streams, each of said sub-streams associated a respective spectral fragment and having a data rate compatible with a bandwidth of the respective spectral fragment;

modulating each of the sub-streams to provide a modulated signal adapted for transmission via the respective spectral fragment; and

upconverting said modulated signals onto respective spectral fragments of at least one carrier signal;

wherein the sub-streams included within the upconverted modulated signals are adapted to be demodulated and combined at a receiver to recover thereby data stream.