DISTRIBUTING DIGITAL COMMUNICATIONS SIGNALS IN ANALOG DISTRIBUTED ANTENNA SYSTEMS (DASS) USING PROGRAMMABLE HEAD-END UNITS
First Claim
1. A programmable head-end unit configured to distribute multi-band/multi-channel digital communications signals to one or more remote unit groups in an analog distributed antenna system (DAS), comprising:
- one or more downlink signal-processing paths each associated with a respective remote unit group, wherein each remote unit group comprises at least one remote unit; and
a programmable digital signal router configured to;
receive one or more downlink digital communications signals from one or more digital signal sources, wherein each of the one or more downlink digital communications signals comprises one or more logical channels;
programmably assign each of the one or more logical channels to one or more logical channel sets, wherein each of the one or more logical channel sets is associated with a downlink signal-processing path among the one or more downlink signal-processing paths;
generate a plurality of downlink digital baseband signals each corresponding to a respective logical channel among the one or more logical channels comprised in the received one or more downlink digital communications signals; and
route each of the plurality of downlink digital baseband signals to at least one of the one or more downlink signal-processing paths based on assignment of the respective logical channel to the one or more logical channel sets;
wherein each of the one or more downlink signal-processing paths is configured to;
receive one or more downlink digital baseband signals among the plurality of downlink digital baseband signals from the programmable digital signal router; and
convert the one or more downlink digital baseband signals into a downlink analog radio frequency (RF) signal to be provided to the respective remote unit group associated with the downlink signal-processing path.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Embodiments of the disclosure relate to distributing digital communications signals in analog distributed antenna systems (DASs) using programmable head-end units. In one aspect, a programmable head-end unit is configured to convert downlink digital communications signals to downlink analog radio frequency (RF) communications signals for distribution to remote unit groups in the analog DAS. Further, the programmable head-end unit is configured to convert uplink analog RF communications signals to uplink digital communications signals to be distributed to the digital signal sources. The programmable head-end unit is also configured to route the digital communications signals between the digital signal sources and the remote unit groups based on programmably defined routing criteria, thus allowing the programmable head-end unit to be software-defined. By providing the programmable head-end unit, the analog DAS can be configured to interface with the digital signal sources to compatibly distribute digital communications signals.
14 Citations
29 Claims
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1. A programmable head-end unit configured to distribute multi-band/multi-channel digital communications signals to one or more remote unit groups in an analog distributed antenna system (DAS), comprising:
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one or more downlink signal-processing paths each associated with a respective remote unit group, wherein each remote unit group comprises at least one remote unit; and a programmable digital signal router configured to; receive one or more downlink digital communications signals from one or more digital signal sources, wherein each of the one or more downlink digital communications signals comprises one or more logical channels; programmably assign each of the one or more logical channels to one or more logical channel sets, wherein each of the one or more logical channel sets is associated with a downlink signal-processing path among the one or more downlink signal-processing paths; generate a plurality of downlink digital baseband signals each corresponding to a respective logical channel among the one or more logical channels comprised in the received one or more downlink digital communications signals; and route each of the plurality of downlink digital baseband signals to at least one of the one or more downlink signal-processing paths based on assignment of the respective logical channel to the one or more logical channel sets; wherein each of the one or more downlink signal-processing paths is configured to; receive one or more downlink digital baseband signals among the plurality of downlink digital baseband signals from the programmable digital signal router; and convert the one or more downlink digital baseband signals into a downlink analog radio frequency (RF) signal to be provided to the respective remote unit group associated with the downlink signal-processing path. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
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14. A method for distributing multi-band/multi-channel digital communications signals in an analog distributed antenna system (DAS), comprising:
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configuring one or more downlink signal-processing paths; associating each of the one or more downlink signal-processing paths with a respective remote unit group; receiving one or more downlink digital communications signals from one or more digital signal sources, respectively, wherein each of the one or more downlink digital communications signals comprises one or more logical channels; programmably assigning each of the one or more logical channels to one or more logical channel sets, wherein each of the one or more logical channel sets is associated with a downlink signal-processing path among the one or more downlink signal-processing paths; generating a plurality of downlink digital baseband signals from the one or more downlink digital communications signals, wherein each of the plurality of downlink digital baseband signals corresponds to a respective logical channel among the one or more logical channels comprised in the received one or more downlink digital communications signals; routing each of the plurality of downlink digital baseband signals to at least one of the one or more downlink signal-processing paths based on assignment of the respective logical channel to the one or more logical channel sets; and converting one or more received downlink digital baseband signals by each of the one or more downlink signal-processing paths to generate a downlink analog radio frequency (RF) signal to be provided to the respective remote unit group associated with the downlink signal-processing path. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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21. An analog distributed antenna system (DAS), comprising:
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one or more remote unit groups each comprising at least one remote unit; a programmable head-end unit coupled to the one or more remote unit groups by at least one downlink communications medium and at least one uplink communications medium, wherein the programmable head-end unit comprises; a programmable digital signal router communicatively coupled to one or more digital signal sources; one or more downlink signal-processing paths communicatively coupled to the programmable digital signal router; wherein the programmable digital signal router is configured to; receive one or more downlink digital communications signals from the one or more digital signal sources, wherein each of the one or more downlink digital communications signals comprises one or more logical channels; programmably assign each of the one or more logical channels to one or more logical channel sets, wherein each of the one or more logical channel sets is associated with a downlink signal-processing path among the one or more downlink signal-processing paths; generate a plurality of downlink digital baseband signals each corresponding to a respective logical channel among the one or more logical channels comprised in the received one or more downlink digital communications signals; and route each of the plurality of downlink digital baseband signals to at least one of the one or more downlink signal-processing paths based on assignment of the respective logical channel to the one or more logical channel sets; one or more digital-to-analog converters (DACs) each coupled to a respective downlink signal-processing path among the one or more downlink signal-processing paths; one or more uplink signal-processing paths communicatively coupled to the programmable digital signal router; and one or more analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) each coupled to an uplink signal-processing path among the one or more uplink signal-processing paths. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29)
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Specification