System and method for allocating frequency channels in a two-way messaging network
First Claim
1. In a radio frequency communication network having a plurality of transmitter units and receiver units for communication with a portable two-way selective call communication device, a method for allocating a plurality of frequency channels to a plurality of said transmitter units for which there is a demand that the transmitter units transmit messages comprising:
- calculating a zone priority value for a zone including one or more of said plurality of transmitter units with each transmitter unit in a zone simulcasting a message, said zone priority value determining the order in which a zone is assigned a frequency channel;
calculating for each zone a channel priority value for each of the frequency channels that the transmitters of a zone can access, said channel priority value determining the order in which an available channel is considered for assignment to the zone;
storing for each transmitter unit an interference data matrix including information identifying interfering transmitter units and for each of said interfering transmitter units a co-channel interference value and an adjacent channel interference value; and
determining whether a proposed available channel is acceptable for assignment to a given transmitter unit based upon the data stored in the interference matrix of said given transmitter unit for other transmitter units currently using the same channel as said proposed channel or a channel adjacent to said proposed channel and upon the data stored in the interference matrices of other transmitter units currently using the same channel or a channel adjacent to said proposed channel for said given transmitter unit and further upon the zone priority value and the channel priority value;
determining whether a proposed available channel has an acceptable quality for assignment to a given zone; and
assigning the proposed available channel to said given zone if it is determined that the proposed channel has an acceptable quality.
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Accused Products
Abstract
In order to allocate frequency channels to transmitter units, the transmitter units are grouped in zones, each zone having one or more transmitter units (10, 20, 30) therein. A system controller (40) calculates a zone priority value which is a function of the zone'"'"'s message traffic level and message latency. The zone priority value determines the order in which a zone is assigned a frequency channel. A channel priority value is calculated for each channel or subchannel that can be accessed by the transmitter units (10, 20, 10) in the zone based on a probability of success and a mean quality margin value wherein the priority value of a channel determines the order in which an available channel is considered for assignment to a zone. A proposed channel is assigned to a given zone only if the proposed channel passes a channel quality check. The channel quality check may be based on co-channel and adjacent channel interference values. Alternatively, the channel quality check may be based on a determination of whether a channel proposed for assignment to a given zone is currently in use by another zone that is correlated with the given zone. Zones are merged and divided in order to provide increasing system capacity and better channel quality as the customer demands grow.
66 Citations
17 Claims
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1. In a radio frequency communication network having a plurality of transmitter units and receiver units for communication with a portable two-way selective call communication device, a method for allocating a plurality of frequency channels to a plurality of said transmitter units for which there is a demand that the transmitter units transmit messages comprising:
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calculating a zone priority value for a zone including one or more of said plurality of transmitter units with each transmitter unit in a zone simulcasting a message, said zone priority value determining the order in which a zone is assigned a frequency channel; calculating for each zone a channel priority value for each of the frequency channels that the transmitters of a zone can access, said channel priority value determining the order in which an available channel is considered for assignment to the zone; storing for each transmitter unit an interference data matrix including information identifying interfering transmitter units and for each of said interfering transmitter units a co-channel interference value and an adjacent channel interference value; and determining whether a proposed available channel is acceptable for assignment to a given transmitter unit based upon the data stored in the interference matrix of said given transmitter unit for other transmitter units currently using the same channel as said proposed channel or a channel adjacent to said proposed channel and upon the data stored in the interference matrices of other transmitter units currently using the same channel or a channel adjacent to said proposed channel for said given transmitter unit and further upon the zone priority value and the channel priority value; determining whether a proposed available channel has an acceptable quality for assignment to a given zone; and assigning the proposed available channel to said given zone if it is determined that the proposed channel has an acceptable quality. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. In a radio frequency communication network having a plurality of transmitter units and receiver units for communication with a portable two-way selective call communication device, a system for allocating a plurality of frequency channels to a plurality of said transmitter units for which there is a demand that the transmitter units transmit messages comprising:
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zone priority calculating means for calculating a zone priority value for a zone including one or more of said plurality of transmitter units with each transmitter unit in a zone simulcasting a message, said zone priority value determining the order in which a zone is assigned a frequency channel; channel priority calculating means for calculating for each zone a channel priority value for each of the frequency channels that the transmitters of a zone can access, said channel priority value determining the order in which an available channel is considered for assignment to the zone; channel assignment means for determining whether a proposed available channel has an acceptable quality for assignment to a given zone, said channel assignment means assigning the proposed available channel to said given zone if it is determined that the proposed channel has an acceptable quality and a memory for-storing for each transmitter unit an interference data matrix including information identifying interfering transmitter units and for each of said interfering transmitter units a co-channel interference value and an adjacent channel interference value; and
said channel assignment means determining whether a proposed available channel is acceptable for assignment to a given transmitter unit based upon the data stored in the interference matrix of said given transmitter unit for other transmitter units currently using the same channel as said proposed channel or a channel adjacent to said proposed channel and upon the data stored in the interference matrices of other transmitter units currently using the same channel or a channel adjacent to said proposed channel for said given transmitter unit and further upon the zone priority value and the channel priority value. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
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Specification