WIRELESS RADIO FREQUENCY INSTRUMENTATION AND ADAPTIVE NETWORK MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

• US 20180343072A1
• Filed: 07/16/2018
• Published: 11/29/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 05/29/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SignalFox, Inc.
• Original Assignee: SignalFox, Inc.
• Inventors: Kiannejad, Shervin
• Granted Patent: US 10,587,352 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 17/318 Received signal strength
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/04 Arrangements for maintaining operational condition
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/08 Testing, supervising or monitoring using real traffic

Abstract

Proactive systems for monitoring, diagnosing, and providing a plan of corrective action for Radio Frequency (RF) hardware components as part of a greater system or network in telecommunications. The system can be used for remote sites and in conjunction with current network management tools as the most prolific and fundamental piece of instrumentation in telecommunication networks. The system can be used simply as an RF development instrument for any industry requiring the use of high frequency signals. It consists of four sensor modules that are wirelessly linked to a receiver module which could be miles away. The sensors are: RF power detector, Spectrum Analyzer, Interference Cancelling Synthesizer, dual function RF power detector and spectrum analyzer. The data gathered allows the user to create a profile for specific malfunctions in the RF chain, as well as interference direction, strength and source type leading to remotely deployed solution, and a mobile network.

Claims

1. An RF monitoring and diagnostic system comprising:

an RF power detector sensor module having an RF power detector sensor input and having a transceiver for receiving instructions from and transmitting RF power detector measurements of an RF signal;

a spectrum analyzer sensor module having a spectrum analyzer input and having a transceiver for receiving instructions from and transmitting spectral analyses of an RF input at the spectrum analyzer input to a receiver module;

an RF interference and noise filtering sensor module having a transmitter for transmitting an RF signal, and having a transceiver for receiving instructions from and transmitting information to the receiver module;

a dual function sensor module having a simultaneously operable spectrum analyzer and RF power detector, and a transceiver for receiving instructions from and for transmitting information to the receiver module;

the receiver module having a transceiver for transmitting instructions to and receiving data from the RF power detector sensor module, the spectrum analyzer sensor module, the RF interference and noise filtering sensor module and the dual function sensor module.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the RF power detector sensor module senses RMS, log, and peak RF power in accordance with received instructions.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the transceiver in the spectrum analyzer sensor module is also for transmitting spectral analyses of the RF input to a receiver of the transceiver of the RF interference and noise filtering sensor module, the RF interference and noise filtering sensor module being configured to transmit an interference cancelling signal responsive to the spectral analysis.

4. An RF monitoring and diagnostic system comprising:

a receiver module having a transceiver for transmitting instructions to and receiving data from at least two RF sensor modules; and

first and second RF sensor modules, each for sensing an RF parameter of an RF signal and each having a transceiver for receiving instructions from the receiver module, transmitting the sensed RF parameter to the receiver module.

5. The system of claim 4 wherein the first and second RF sensor modules comprise first and second RF power detector sensor modules, the first and second RF power detector sensor modules having different dynamic range, frequency of operation and input power capabilities.

6. The system of claim 4 wherein the first and second RF sensor modules comprise first and second spectrum analyzer sensor modules, the first and second spectrum analyzer sensor modules having different sensing bandwidths.

7. The system of claim 4 wherein the first and second RF sensor modules comprise an RF power detector sensor module and one spectrum analyzer.

8. The system of claim 4 further comprising a third RF sensor module, and wherein the first and second RF sensor modules comprise two RF power sensor modules of differing frequency of operation, dynamic range, and input power capability, and the third RF sensor module comprises a spectrum analyzer sensor module.

9. The system of claim 4 further comprising a third RF sensor module, and wherein the first and second RF sensor modules comprise two spectrum analyzer sensors of differing bandwidth and the third RF sensor module comprises an RF power sensor module.

10. The system of claim 4 further comprising a third RF sensor module, and wherein the first RF sensor module comprises a dual function sensor module, the second RF sensor module comprises an RF power detector sensor module, and the third RF sensor comprises an RF interference and noise filtering sensor module.

11. The system of claim 4 further comprising a third RF sensor module, and wherein the first RF sensor module comprises a dual function sensor module, the second RF sensor module comprises an RF interference and noise filtering sensor module, and the third RF sensor module comprises a spectrum analyzer sensor module.

12. The system of claim 4 further comprising a third RF sensor module, and wherein the first and second RF sensor modules comprise dual function sensor modules, the two dual function sensor modules differing in frequency of operation, bandwidth, dynamic range, and input power capacity, spectrum analyzer functions on each dual sensor modules differing by bandwidth, and the third RF sensor module being an RF interference and noise filtering sensor module.

13. The system of claim 4 further comprising a third RF sensor module, wherein the first and second RF sensor modules comprise RF interference and noise filtering sensor modules and the third RF sensor module comprises a dual function sensor module.

14. The system of claim 4 wherein the first RF sensor module comprises a spectrum analyzer sensor module and the second RF sensor module comprises an RF interference and noise filtering sensor module.

15. The system of claim 4 wherein the first RF sensor module comprises a dual function sensor module and the second RF sensor module comprises an RF interference and noise filtering sensor module.

16. The system of claim 4 wherein the first RF sensor module comprises a dual function sensor module and the second RF sensor modules comprises an RF power detector sensor module.

17. The system of claim 4 wherein the first RF sensor module comprises a dual function sensor module and the second RF sensor module comprises a spectrum analyzer sensor module.

18. The system of claim 4 further comprising third and fourth RF sensor modules, and wherein the first RF sensor module comprises a spectrum analyzer sensor module, the second RF sensor module comprises an RF power detector sensor module, the third RF sensor module comprises a dual function sensor module and the fourth RF sensor module comprises an RF interference and noise filtering sensor module.

19. The system of claim 4 further comprising third and fourth RF sensor modules, and wherein the first RF sensor module comprises an RF power detector sensor module, and the second, third and fourth RF sensor modules comprise spectrum analyzer sensor modules that each differ in bandwidth from the other spectrum analyzer sensor modules.

20. The system of claim 4 further comprising third and fourth RF sensor modules, and wherein the first and second RF sensor modules comprise two spectrum analyzer sensor modules, and the third and fourth RF sensor modules comprise two RF power detector sensor modules, and wherein the spectrum analyzer sensor modules differ from each other in bandwidth and the RF power detector sensor modules differ from each other in frequency of operation, bandwidth, and input power capability.

21. The system of claim 4 further comprising third and fourth RF sensor modules, and wherein the first, second and third RF sensor modules comprise RF power detector sensor modules and the fourth RF sensor module comprises a spectrum analyzer sensor module.

22. The system of claim 4 further comprising third and fourth RF sensor modules, and wherein the first, second, third and fourth RF sensor modules comprise RF power detector sensor modules with differing dynamic range, frequency of operation, and input power capability.

23. The system of claim 4 further comprising third and fourth RF sensor modules, and wherein the first, second, third and fourth RF sensor modules comprise four spectrum analyzer sensor modules covering different bandwidths.

24. The system of claim 4 further comprising third and fourth RF sensor modules, and wherein the first and second RF sensor modules comprise two spectrum analyzer sensor modules with different bandwidths and the third and fourth RF sensor modules comprise RF interference and noise filtering sensor modules.

25. The system of claim 4 further comprising third and fourth RF sensor modules, and wherein the first RF sensor module comprises a spectrum analyzer sensor module and the second, third and fourth RF sensor modules comprise RF interference and noise filtering sensor modules.

26. The system of claim 4 further comprising third and fourth RF sensor modules, and wherein the first RF sensor module comprises an RF interference and noise filtering sensor module and the second, third and fourth RF sensor modules comprise dual function sensor modules.

27. The system of claim 4 further comprising third and fourth RF sensor modules, and wherein the first and second RF sensor modules comprise dual function sensor modules and the third and fourth RF sensor modules comprise RF interference and noise filtering sensor modules.

28. The system of claim 4 further comprising third and fourth RF sensor modules, and wherein the first, second and third RF sensor modules comprise RF interference and noise filtering sensor modules and the fourth RF sensor module is a dual function sensor module.