Integrated personal/cellular communications system architecture
First Claim
1. A personal communications network, PCN, for use over allocated cellular communications channels, said PCN comprising a plurality of PCN subnetworks, each of said PCN subnetworks comprising:
- a plurality of microcells arranged in a multi-dimensional grid, said grid defining at least rows and columns of said microcells, wherein the allocated cellular communications channels are divided into sets of said cellular channels and each of said columns of said grid is assigned one of said sets for internal spectral reuse;
a plurality of centralized channel units divided into groups, each of said columns corresponding to a respective group, and each of said channel units in said respective group including means for transmitting signals over the set of cellular channels assigned to the corresponding column; and
a downstream distributor for distributing said signals transmitted by said channel units in said respective group to personal communications units positioned within said corresponding column.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An integrated PCN/DCN system architecture has a switching center, coupled to a public switched telephone network (PSTN), which selectively transfers signals between the PSTN and a digital cellular network (DCN) or a personal communications network (PCN) which is allocated a portion of the cellular communications band by a local cellular operator. Each PCN subnetwork of the PCN includes several microcells arranged in a multi-dimensional grid, and the allocated cellular channels are divided into sets assigned to columns of the grid. The allocated portion of the cellular spectrum is reused within each PCN subnetwork by assigning the same set to more than one of the columns so that different communications signals can be transferred over the same cellular channels.
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Citations
28 Claims
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1. A personal communications network, PCN, for use over allocated cellular communications channels, said PCN comprising a plurality of PCN subnetworks, each of said PCN subnetworks comprising:
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a plurality of microcells arranged in a multi-dimensional grid, said grid defining at least rows and columns of said microcells, wherein the allocated cellular communications channels are divided into sets of said cellular channels and each of said columns of said grid is assigned one of said sets for internal spectral reuse; a plurality of centralized channel units divided into groups, each of said columns corresponding to a respective group, and each of said channel units in said respective group including means for transmitting signals over the set of cellular channels assigned to the corresponding column; and a downstream distributor for distributing said signals transmitted by said channel units in said respective group to personal communications units positioned within said corresponding column. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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21. A personal communications network, PCN, for use over allocated cellular communications channels, said PCN comprising a plurality of PCN subnetworks, each of said PCN subnetworks comprising:
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a plurality of microcells arranged in a multi-dimensional grid, said grid defining at least rows and columns of said microcells, wherein cellular communications channels allocated to the subnetwork are divided into sets of said channels and wherein each of said columns of said grid is assigned one of said sets; a multisite diversity controller for receiving signals transmitted by personal communications units positioned within a respective column but received in other columns and comparing the quality of the received signals; and a hand-off controller for reassigning personal communications units from one column to another in response to said comparison by said multisite diversity controller by changing the channels to which corresponding microcells are assigned. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23, 24, 25)
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26. A personal communications network, PCN, for use over allocated cellular communications channels, said PCN comprising a plurality of PCN subnetworks, each of said PCN subnetworks comprising:
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a plurality of microcells arranged in a multi-dimensional grid, said grid defining at least rows and columns of said microcells, wherein the allocated cellular channels are divided into sets of said cellular channels and each of said columns of said grid is assigned one of said sets for internal spectral reuse; an upstream distributor for distributing signals transmitted by personal communications units positioned within a respective column to channel units in the group to which said respective column corresponds, wherein signals transmitted over respective cellular channels by said personal communications units are distributed to channel units which transmit over said respective cellular channels; said upstream distributor further comprising means for distributing signals transmitted by personal communications units positioned within columns adjacent to said respective column to channel units in the group to which said respective column corresponds, wherein signals transmitted over respective cellular channels of the set assigned to said respective column by personal communications units within said columns adjacent to said respective column are distributed to channels units which transmit over said respective channels; and a multisite diversity controller for selecting the strongest of said transmitted signals of a respective cellular channel for transmission to a communications switching center of the personal communications network. - View Dependent Claims (27, 28)
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Specification