INTEGRATED BASE STATION FOR MANAGING MULTIPLE SIMPLIFIED RADIO ACCESS POINTS

• US 20130034358A1
• Filed: 08/02/2012
• Published: 02/07/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 08/02/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology
• Original Assignee: Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology
• Inventors: SUNG, Dan Keun, JUNG, Byoung Hoon, LEEM, Hansung, KIM, Hyun Jik, CHU, Eunmi
• Granted Patent: US 9,055,610 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 398/115
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/14 Reselecting a network or an air interface
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/1446 wherein at least one of the networks is unlicensed
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/085 Access point devices with remote components
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

There is disclosed an integrated base station (BS) communicatively combined with two or more simplified radio access points (APs). The integrated BS is configured to receive a signal from a backbone/backhaul network and transmits the received signal to the simplified radio APs, route a signal to at least one of the two or more simplified radio APs, and communicate with the two or more simplified radio APs through wireline communication.

Claims

1. An integrated base station (BS) communicatively combined with two or more simplified radio access points (APs), wherein the integrated BS is configured to:

receive a signal from a backbone/backhaul network and transmit the received signal to the simplified radio APs;

route a signal to at least one of the two or more simplified radio APs; and

communicate with the two or more simplified radio APs through wireline communication.

2. The integrated BS of claim 1, wherein the simplified radio APs include radio BSs that support user terminals using at least one cellular communication of code division multiple access (CDMA), global system for mobile communications (GSM), wideband CMDA (WCDMA), long term evolution (LTE), LTE-Advanced, and WiBro.

3. The integrated BS of claim 1, wherein the simplified radio APs include radio APs that support user terminals using at least one local area network of IEEE 802.11a, 11b, 11g, 11n, 11h, 11ac, and 11ad.

4. The integrated BS of claim 1, wherein the simplified radio APs are radio APs that support user terminals using at least one near field communication of IEEE 802.15.1 (Bluetooth) and 802.15.4 (ZigBee).

5. The integrated BS of claim 1, wherein the wireline communication is optical communication.

6. The integrated BS of claim 1, wherein the wireline communication is used for a single-hop or multi-hop communication through a different simplified radio AP that performs wireline communication with the integrated BS.

7. The integrated BS of claim 1, wherein the integrated BS includes two or more signal processing paths which correspond to the two or more simplified radio APs, respectively, and process a baseband signal to the simplified radio APs corresponding to a signal from the backbone/backhaul network,

the signal processing paths being activated or deactivated based on a communication situation of the simplified radio APs.

8. The integrated BS of claim 7, wherein the wireline communication is used for radio on fiber (RoF) communication,

the signal processing paths include a baseband processing unit configured to convert a signal from the backbone/backhaul network into a symbol, a radio conversion unit configured to convert the symbol into a radio signal, and an optical conversion unit configured to convert the radio signal into an optical signal,

the integrated BS further includes a management unit configured to activate or deactivate the baseband processing unit, and

the activation or deactivation of the signal processing paths is achieved by activation or deactivation of the baseband processing unit.

9. The integrated BS of claim 7, wherein the wireline communication is used for remote radio head,

the signal processing paths include a baseband processing unit configured to convert a signal from the backbone/backhaul network into a symbol, and a radio conversion unit configured to convert the symbol into a radio signal, and

the activation or deactivation of the signal processing paths is achieved by activation or deactivation of the baseband processing unit.

10. The integrated BS of claim 1, further comprising:

two or more signal processing paths configured to convert a signal from the backbone/backhaul network into a corresponding wired signal toward the simplified radio APs, and correspond to the two or more simplified radio APs respectively; and

a handover management unit configured to change the signal processing paths for a signal to be transmitted to a user depending on a user movement.

11. The integrated BS of claim 10, wherein the handover management unit changes a signal processing path among signal processing paths corresponding to the same types of simplified radio APs.

12. The integrated BS of claim 11, further comprising:

a baseband processing unit configured to convert a signal from the backbone/backhaul network into a symbol;

an optical conversion unit configured to convert the symbol from the baseband processing unit into a wired optical signal; and

a path management unit for selectively activating or deactivating communication between the baseband processing unit and the optical conversion unit,

wherein the handover management unit controls the path management unit to change the signal processing path for the signal to be transmitted.

13. The integrated BS of claim 10, wherein the handover management unit changes a signal processing path among signal processing paths corresponding to different types of simplified radio APs.

14. The integrated BS of claim 13, wherein the simplified radio APs include a first point which is a simplified radio BS for cellular communication, and a second point which is a simplified wireless local area network AP for wireless local area network communication,

the integrated BS further comprises:

a first baseband processing unit configured to convert a signal from the backbone/backhaul network into a symbol for transmission to the first point;

a second baseband processing unit configured to convert a signal from the backbone/backhaul network into a symbol for transmission to the second point; and

a connection unit configured to allow the signal from the backbone/backhaul network to be transferred to one of the first baseband processing unit and the second baseband processing unit, and

wherein the handover management unit controls the connection unit to change the signal processing path for the signal to be transmitted.

15. The integrated BS of claim 1, further comprising:

a resource management unit configured to determine at least one of frequencies to be used for a signal transmission to each of the simplified radio APs, a time for signal transmission to each of the simplified radio APs, a data rate to be used for a signal transmission to each of the simplified radio APs based on a communication state of each of the simplified radio APs.

16. The integrated BS of claim 1, wherein the integrated BS transmits or receives a position determination signal to a user terminal through the two or more simplified APs.

17. A network system comprising:

an integrated base station (BS); and

two or more simplified radio access points (APs) connected to perform wireline communication with the integrated BS,

wherein the integrated BS is configured to;

receive a signal from a backbone/backhaul network and transmit the received signal to the simplified radio APs;

route a signal to at least one of the two or more simplified radio APs; and

communicate with the two or more simplified radio APs through wireline communication.