Channel compression and dynamic repartitioning for dual mode cellular radio
First Claim
1. A method of operating a given cell of a cellular telephone system comprising the steps of:
- a) at a first time, establishing for a set of n radio frequency carriers available within the given cell, a first subset n(a1) of carriers operating as analog carriers and a second subset n(d1) of carriers operating as digital carriers, where each digital carrier supports from 1 to x channels on a time multiplexed basis, wheren(a#) represents a number of analog carriers at a time identified by the index #,n(d#) represents a number of digital carriers at a time identified by the index #,n represents a number of carriers at the cell,n, n(a#) and n(d#) is less than or equal to n, andx is an integer greater than or equal to two,b) at a second time, later than the first time,b1) examining each of the digital carriers to locate those digital carriers supporting less than x channels,b2) selecting channels from among a group of the digital carriers located in step b1) and rearranging the selected channels to occupy unused channels of digital carriers located in step b1) which are not within the digital carrier group, andc) at a third time, later than the first time, selecting at least one digital carrier supporting no channels and removing said selected digital carrier from the second subset of carriers operating as digital carriers and inserting the removed carrier into the first subset of carriers operating as analog carriers so that the first subset of carriers at the third time n(a3) is greater than the first subset of carriers n(a1) at the first time.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A cellular system uses dynamic repartitioning and channel packing to improve capacity without impacting quality. Dynamic repartitioning is employed to convert a carrier which operates, at one time, as an analog carrier to operate, at a later time, as a digital carrier in response to changes in offered traffic. Alternatively, a carrier which, at one time, operates as a digital carrier is converted to operate, at a later time, as an analog carrier in response to changes in offered traffic. Channel packing is used to allocate as many digital channels as possible to as few digital carriers as possible. In a preferred embodiment, both repartitioning and channel packing are implemented in response to call origination or call termination.
52 Citations
29 Claims
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1. A method of operating a given cell of a cellular telephone system comprising the steps of:
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a) at a first time, establishing for a set of n radio frequency carriers available within the given cell, a first subset n(a1) of carriers operating as analog carriers and a second subset n(d1) of carriers operating as digital carriers, where each digital carrier supports from 1 to x channels on a time multiplexed basis, where n(a#) represents a number of analog carriers at a time identified by the index #, n(d#) represents a number of digital carriers at a time identified by the index #, n represents a number of carriers at the cell, n, n(a#) and n(d#) is less than or equal to n, and x is an integer greater than or equal to two, b) at a second time, later than the first time, b1) examining each of the digital carriers to locate those digital carriers supporting less than x channels, b2) selecting channels from among a group of the digital carriers located in step b1) and rearranging the selected channels to occupy unused channels of digital carriers located in step b1) which are not within the digital carrier group, and c) at a third time, later than the first time, selecting at least one digital carrier supporting no channels and removing said selected digital carrier from the second subset of carriers operating as digital carriers and inserting the removed carrier into the first subset of carriers operating as analog carriers so that the first subset of carriers at the third time n(a3) is greater than the first subset of carriers n(a1) at the first time. - View Dependent Claims (3, 4)
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2. A method of operating a cell of a cellular telephone system comprising the steps of:
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a) at a first time, establishing for a set of n radio frequency carriers available within the given cell, a first subset n(a1) of carriers operating as analog carriers and a second subset n(d1) of carriers operating as digital carriers, where each digital carrier supports from 1 to x channels on a time multiplexed basis, where n (a#) represents a number of analog carriers at a time identified by the index #, n(d#) represents a number of digital carriers at a time identified by the index #, n represents a number of carriers at the cell, n, n(a#) and n(d#) are each integers, a sum of n(a#) and n(d#) is less than or equal to n, and x is an integer greater than or equal to two, b) at a second time, later than the first time, b1) examining each of the digital carriers to locate those digital carriers supporting less than x channels, b2) selecting channels from among a group of the digital carriers located in step b1) and rearranging the selected channels to occupy unused channels of digital carriers located in step b1) which are not within the digital carrier group, and c) at a third time, later than the first time, selecting at least one unused analog carrier and removing said selected analog carrier from the first subset of carriers operating as analog carriers and inserting the removed carrier into the second subset of carriers operating as digital carriers so that the second subset of carriers at the third time n(d3) is greater than the number of carriers in the second subset of carriers n(d1) at the first time. - View Dependent Claims (5)
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6. A method of operating a given cell of a cellular telephone system to improve capacity and reduce interference, said method comprising the steps of:
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a) assigning a set of radio frequency carriers to the cell, b) dynamically varying an operating protocol of at least one of the radio frequency carriers, in response to real time traffic variations, between an analog protocol and a digital protocol so that at one time said at least one radio frequency carrier operates as an analog carrier and at another time said at least one radio frequency carrier operates as a time division multiplexed digital carrier supporting more than a single channel, c) examining those radio frequency carriers operating as time division multiplexed digital carriers to locate carriers supporting a number of channels less than a maximum number of channels supportable on the digital carrier, and d) moving at least one operating connection from a channel of one digital carrier to a previously vacant channel of another digital carrier. - View Dependent Claims (7, 8, 9)
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10. In a radio frequency communications system having a plurality of stations, wherein the stations communicate on carrier frequencies using channels assigned from among a plurality of assignable channels, some of the channels having a continuous format requiring an entire carrier frequency and some of the channels having a time division multiple access (TDMA) format requiring a repeating time slot corresponding to a portion of a carrier frequency, a method of reassigning channels among the carrier frequencies comprising:
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examining each of the carrier frequencies supporting TDMA channels to locate those carrier frequencies supporting less than a predetermined number of TDMA channels, and reassigning at least one TDMA from at least one of the located carrier frequencies to another of the located carrier frequencies in order to reduce the number of carrier frequencies supporting less than the predetermined number of TDMA channels. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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19. In a radio frequency communications system having a plurality of stations, wherein the stations communicate on carrier frequencies using channels assigned from among a plurality of assignable channels, some of the channels having a continuous format requiring an entire carrier frequency and some of the channels having a time division multiple access (TDMA) format requiring a repeating time slot corresponding to a portion of a carrier frequency, and wherein the carrier frequencies are assigned to the support of either continuous or TDMA channels, a method of assigning a new channel to a carrier frequency comprising:
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receiving a call attempt for signalling a requirement to provide an assignment for a new channel, determining whether the new channel has a continuous format or a TDMA format, if the new channel has a TDMA format, examining the carrier frequencies assigned to TDMA channels to determine whether a TDMA channel is available on the TDMA-assigned carrier frequencies, if no TDMA channel is available, examining the carrier frequencies assigned to continue channels to determine whether a continuous-assigned carrier frequency is available, and if a continuous-assigned carrier frequency is available, reassigning the available continuous-assigned carrier frequency to TDMA channels and assigning the new channel to the reassigned carrier frequency. - View Dependent Claims (20, 21, 22, 23)
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24. In a radio frequency communications system having a plurality of stations, wherein the stations communicate on carrier frequencies using channels assigned from among a plurality of assignable channels, some of the channels having a continuous format requiring an entire channel frequency and some of the channels having a time division multiple access (TDMA) format requiring a repeating time slot corresponding to a portion of a carrier frequency, and wherein the carrier frequencies are assigned to the support of either continuous or TDMA channels, a method of assigning a new channel to a carrier frequency comprising:
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receiving a call attempt for signalling a requirement to provide an assignment for a new channel, determining whether the new channel has a continuous format of a TDMA format, if the new channel has a continuous format, examining the carrier frequencies assigned to continuous channels to determine whether a continuous channel is available on the continuous-assigned carrier frequencies, if no continuous channel is available, examining the carrier frequencies assigned to TDMA channels to determine whether a TDMA-assigned carrier frequency is available, and if a TDMA-assigned carrier frequency is available, reassigning the available TDMA-assigned carrier frequency to continuous channels and assigning the new channel to the reassigned carrier frequency. - View Dependent Claims (25, 26, 27, 28, 29)
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Specification