Radio telephone system and antenna device and base station for the same

• US 5,648,961 A
• Filed: 11/01/1995
• Issued: 07/15/1997
• Est. Priority Date: 11/21/1994
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Meisei Electric Co., Ltd. (IHI Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Meisei Electric Co., Ltd. (IHI Corporation)
• Inventors: Ebihara, Takamasa
• Primary Examiner(s): Olms, Douglas W.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Patel, Ajit
• Application Number:
  US08/551,558
• Time in Patent Office: 622 Days
• Field of Search: 370/95.1, 370/95.3, 370/100.1, 370/103, 370/108, 455/33.1, 455/33.2, 455/51.1, 455/34.1, 379/59, 379/60
• US Class Current: 370/282
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/2609 Arrangements for range control, e.g. by using remote antennas
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/26 Cell enhancers or enhancement, e.g. for tunnels, building shadow
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/00 Supervisory, monitoring or testing arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/10 Connection setup
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/08 Access point devices

Abstract

A radio telephone system and an antenna device and a base station for the same which permit the expansion of a radio communication range and also further extension of the distance between the base station and an antenna. A single base station accommodates a plurality of antenna devices and the base station and the antenna devices are connected by optical fiber cables. Each of the antenna devices is equipped primarily with an optical-to-electrical converter, an electrical-to-optical converter, a distributor, frequency converters/amplifiers, local frequency oscillators, a control channel signal detector, a transmit/receive switcher, a controller, and antenna. The transmit/receive switching control is synchronized with the transmitting and receiving timings for send and receive signals transferred to and from the base station by using a slot number transmitted through a transmission control channel. The plurality of antenna devices connected to the single base station make it possible to expand the radio communication range to an arbitrary range in practical use; they also permit free selection of an area of radio communication range by connecting the base station with the antenna devices by optical fiber cables. In addition, the transmit/receive switching control of the antenna devices is carried out in accordance with the receiving timing of a slot number of a transmission control channel from the base station. This ensures accurate transmit/receive switching control.

Claims

1. A TDMA system radio telephone system comprising:

a base station having a transmit/receive operation;

an antenna being installed at a location away from said base station, said antenna having a transmit/receive operation;

an antenna device being provided between said base station and said antenna;

separate transmission lines for transferring a send signal and a receive signal between said antenna device and said base station, said send and receive signal establishing a control channel and a speech channel, and said control channel having prearranged slots therein;

said control channel being continuously monitored by the antenna device while said speech channel is being set; and

means for synchronizing transmit/receive switching of said antenna in said antenna device with the transmit/receive operation at said base station in accordance with the receiving timing of a particular slot of the control channel.

2. A radio telephone system according to claim 1, wherein said transmission lines are optical fiber cables.

3. An antenna device which is connected to the base station of the TDMA system radio telephone system, which exchanges optical signals with the base station optical signals, and which is linked to the base station by a first optical fiber cable for transmitting a send signal and by a second optical fiber cable for transmitting a receive signal, the antenna device comprising:

optical-to-electrical converting means for convening the send signal transmitted by the first optical fiber cable from an optical signal to an electrical signal;

distributing means for distributing the send signal issued by the optical-to-electrical converting means to a first signal path and a second signal path;

an antenna;

transmit/receive switching means having a switching operation for alternately connecting the antenna to the first signal path and a third signal path;

electrical-to-optical converting means for converting the receive signal transmitted to the third signal path from an electrical signal to an optical signal before transmitting it to the second optical fiber cable when the antenna is connected to the third signal path by the transmit/receive switching means; and

switching control means for isolating a control channel from the send signal transmitted to the second signal path and for analyzing the control channel to synchronize the switching operation of the transmit/receive switching means with the transmit/receive operation of a speech channel in accordance with a receiving timing of particular information of a particular slot written in the control channel.

4. An antenna device according to claim 3, wherein the switching control means performs the control for synchronizing the switching operation of the transmit/receive switching means with the transmit/receive operation of the speech channel each time a preset number of transmission frames of the control channel is repeated and said switching control means generates a switching control signal for a transmission frame, on which no synchronization control is carried out, in accordance with the duration of the transmission frame.

5. A base station for connection to the antenna device of claim 4, said base station having a plurality of the antenna devices connected thereto and comprising:

receive electric field strength comparing means for comparing the receive electrical field intensities of the receive signals transmitted from the plurality of antenna devices; and

antenna device selecting means for selecting an antenna device, which permits communication with the greatest receive electric field strength, in accordance with the comparison result given by the receive electric field strength comparing means and for validating the connection with the antenna device while invalidating the connection with other antenna devices.

6. An antenna device according to claim 3, which antenna device exchanges signals with the base station at a carrier frequency which is different from the carrier frequency of a radio link and the first signal path, the second signal path, and the third signal path are respectively further equipped with carrier frequency converting means.

7. A base station for connection to the antenna device of claim 6, said base station having a plurality of the antenna devices connected thereto and comprising:

receive electric field strength comparing means for comparing the receive electrical field intensities of the receive signals transmitted from the plurality of antenna devices; and

antenna device selecting means for selecting an antenna device, which permits communication with the greatest receive electric field strength, in accordance with the comparison result given by the receive electric field strength comparing means and for validating the connection with the antenna device while invalidating the connection with other antenna devices.

8. An antenna device according to claim 3, further comprising delay time correcting means for correcting a time delay produced from the moment a signal is received from the base station to the moment particular information is decoded, said time delay being caused by a difference in the signal transmission time between the first signal path and the second signal path and the time required for the particular information of a particular slot of a control channel to be decoded.

9. A base station for connection to the antenna device of claim 8, said base station having a plurality of the antenna devices connected thereto and comprising:

receive electric field strength comparing means for comparing the receive electrical field intensities of the receive signals transmitted from the plurality of antenna devices; and

antenna device selecting means for selecting an antenna device, which permits communication with the greatest receive electric field strength, in accordance with the comparison result given by the receive electric field strength comparing means and for validating the connection with the antenna device while invalidating the connection with other antenna devices.

10. A base station for connection to the antenna device of claim 3, said base station having a plurality of the antenna devices connected thereto and comprising:

receive electric field strength comparing means for comparing the receive electrical field intensities of the receive signals transmitted from the plurality of antenna devices; and

antenna device selecting means for selecting an antenna device, which permits communication with the greatest receive electric field strength, in accordance with the comparison result given by the receive electric field strength comparing means and for validating the connection with the antenna device while invalidating the connection with other antenna devices.