SYSTEMS, COMPONENTS, AND METHODS FOR PROVIDING LOCATION SERVICES FOR MOBILE/WIRELESS CLIENT DEVICES IN DISTRIBUTED ANTENNA SYSTEMS USING ADDITIONAL SIGNAL PROPAGATION DELAY
First Claim
1. A distributed antenna system, comprising:
- a plurality of remote antenna units (RAU) each configured to communicate received downlink radio-frequency (RF) communications signals wirelessly to client devices and configured to receive uplink RF communications signals wirelessly from the client devices;
head end equipment (HEE) configured to;
receive the downlink RF communications signals from a base station and distribute the received downlink communication RF signals over a plurality of downlink communications paths comprising a plurality of downlink communications medium each coupled to one of the plurality of remote antenna units (RAUs); and
receive uplink RF communications signals over a plurality of uplink communications paths comprising a plurality of uplink communications medium each coupled to one of the plurality of RAUs; and
at least one of additional uplink delay component provided in one or more of the uplink communications paths to increase a signal propagation delay of the uplink RF communications signals such that each of the plurality of uplink communications paths has a unique actual signal propagation delay to uniquely identify the plurality of RAUs from the actual signal propagation delay of the uplink RF communications signals.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Systems, components, and methods for providing location services for mobile/wireless client devices in distributed antenna systems using additional signal propagation delay are disclosed. The location of a client device communicating with an antenna in the distributed antenna system can be correlated to location within at least the communication range of an antenna. To determine with which particular antenna within the distributed antenna system a client device is communicating, the antennas within the distributed antenna system are uniquely identified. In this regard, additional propagation delays are introduced in the communication paths between some or all of the antennas and the head-end equipment in distributed antenna systems to distinguish communications between different antennas. The additional propagation delay can be correlated with a unique antenna, which in turn can be correlated to distance within the distributed antenna system.
43 Citations
20 Claims
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1. A distributed antenna system, comprising:
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a plurality of remote antenna units (RAU) each configured to communicate received downlink radio-frequency (RF) communications signals wirelessly to client devices and configured to receive uplink RF communications signals wirelessly from the client devices; head end equipment (HEE) configured to; receive the downlink RF communications signals from a base station and distribute the received downlink communication RF signals over a plurality of downlink communications paths comprising a plurality of downlink communications medium each coupled to one of the plurality of remote antenna units (RAUs); and receive uplink RF communications signals over a plurality of uplink communications paths comprising a plurality of uplink communications medium each coupled to one of the plurality of RAUs; and at least one of additional uplink delay component provided in one or more of the uplink communications paths to increase a signal propagation delay of the uplink RF communications signals such that each of the plurality of uplink communications paths has a unique actual signal propagation delay to uniquely identify the plurality of RAUs from the actual signal propagation delay of the uplink RF communications signals. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
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14. A method of determining the location of a client device in a distributed antenna system, comprising:
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determining the actual signal propagation delay for an uplink RF communications signal received from a remote antenna unit (RAU) among a plurality of RAUs each configured to communicate received downlink radio-frequency (RF) communications signals wirelessly to client devices and configured to receive uplink RF communications signals wirelessly from client devices correlating the actual signal propagation delay to the identity of the RAU among the plurality of RAUs to identify the RAU involved with the uplink RF communications signal; and correlating the location of the client device communicating the uplink RF communications signal to the identified RAU with a pre-configured location of the identified RAU. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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Specification