System packet-based centralized base station controller

• US 6,034,950 A
• Filed: 12/27/1996
• Issued: 03/07/2000
• Est. Priority Date: 12/27/1996
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Google Technology Holdings LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Motorola, Inc. (Motorola Solutions, Inc.)
• Inventors: Sears, Thomas L., Steinberg, Paul, Pedziwiatr, Joseph, Lovette, Steve, Timbs, Jeffrey L., Sauer, John M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Chau
• Assistant Examiner(s): HYUN, SOON D
• Application Number:
  US08/777,319
• Time in Patent Office: 1,166 Days
• Field of Search: 370/328, 370/331, 370/335, 370/338, 370/342, 370/349, 370/395, 370/397, 370/398, 370/400, 370/401, 370/466, 370/332, 370/336
• US Class Current: 370/310.2
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/5607 Radio
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/5652 Cell construction, e.g. including header, packetisation, depacketisation, assembly, reassembly
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/5671 Support of voice
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/5676 Code Division Multiple Access [CDMA]
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 11/0478 Provisions for broadband connections
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/18 Information format or content conversion, e.g. adaptation by the network of the transmitted or received information for the purpose of wireless delivery to users or terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/08 Access point devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/12 Access point controller devices

Abstract

A base station system (BSS) encompasses a base station controller (BSC), ATM transcoder (AXC), and one or more Base Tranceiver Subsystems (BTS). The AXC provides for the coupling of external mobile subscriber subsystems (MS) and a public switched telephone network (PSTN). The BSC provides for communication with and control of the ATM transcoder hub subsystem. In one embodiment, the ATM transcoder subsystem provides a first set of signals to the BSC subsystem to signal the base station controller as to call flow management data. The BSC is responsive to the first set of signals from the ATM transcoder hub to generate a second set of signals coupled back to the ATM transcoder hub. This second set of signals provides for the control of transcoding and conversion necessary to communicate between a wireless air communications format data and a call management protocol format data utilized in communication to the public switch telephone network. In one embodiment, the communication between the PSTN and the AXC is in an ATM format and in an alternate embodiment a synchronous format is used. The BSC provides control and sequencing of all call control operations. Control is preferably near real-time. In one embodiment, call control operations comprise call setup, breakdown, and hand-off among the ATM transcoder hub (AXC), the Base Transceiver Subsystem (BTS), and the PSTN via a Mobile Switching Center (MSC).

Claims

1. A bas station system (BSS) comprising:

a base station controller (BSC) and an ATM transcoder hub (AXC), the AXC providing means for communicating between external mobile subscriber subsystems (MS) and a public switched telephone network (PSTN), wherein the BSC provides means for communicating with and controlling the AXC,

wherein the AXC provides a first set of signals to the BSC to direct the base station controller as to call flow management data; and

a wherein the BSC is responsive to the first set of signals from the AXC to generate a second set of signals coupled to the AXC, to provide control of transcoding and conversion necessary to communicate between the mobile subscriber subsystems generating data in an air interface communications format and a data source generating data in a format compatible with the PSTN.

2. The system as in claim 1, wherein the communication between the PSTN and the AXC is in an ATM format.

3. The system as in claim 1, wherein the BSC provides control and sequencing of all call control operations for the BSS.

4. The system as in claim 3, wherein the call control operations occur substantially in real-time.

5. The system as in claim 3, wherein the call control operations comprise call setup, breakdown, and hand-off among the AXC, a Base Transceiver Subsystem (BTS), and a Mobile Switching Center (MSC).

6. The system as in claim 5, wherein the BTS performs CDMA IS-95A overhead messaging.

7. The system as in claim 1, wherein the BSC performs at least one task selected from the group consisting of BTS radio resource allocation and deallocation, AXC voice processor allocation, per-call performance record collection, and MSC trunk allocation.

8. The system as in claim 1, wherein control messages for communicating control information regarding call setup, teardown, sequencing and hand-off are carried over an ATM cell format.

9. The system as in claim 1, wherein the BSC, the AXC, and the BTS are directed by an operations and maintenance center-radio (OMC-R) to effect operations, administration, maintenance, and provisioning operations comprising initialization, configuration management, software loading, device state management, alarm reporting, fault management, traffic and engineering statistics aggregation.

10. The system as in claim 1, wherein the first and second set of signals are in an ATM format.

11. The system as in claim 10, wherein the AXC is further comprised of:

a transcoder subsystem (XC) for transcoding communicated data between the air interface communications format and the call management protocol format;

a mobile subscriber controller network interface subsystem (NI), comprising means for interfacing to the MS and therefrom to the PSTN, and a mobile subscriber interface further comprising a Base Transceiver Subsystem Interface (BTSI) providing means for coupling to and from a Base Transceiver Subsystem (BTS), which BTS interfaces with the MS in response to mobility management control information provided by the BSC in the second set of signals.

12. The system as in claim 11, wherein said BTS communicates data in a BTS format, and wherein said BTSI provides conversion between the BTS format and the ATM format.

13. The system as in claim 12, wherein said BTSI is responsive to said BSC for providing conversion between the ATM format and the BTS format to communicate control data to the BTS;

wherein the BTSI allocates bandwidth and priority for coupling the mobility management control information to the BTS; and

wherein the BTSI converts between the ATM format and the BTS format, including protorcol conversion.

14. The system as in claim 13, wherein each MS registers its presence for at least one BTS;

wherein the PSTN originates a call that generates a page message requesting a specific MS; and

wherein the BTSI provides selective broadcast of the page message to the BTS for which the MS has registered its presence.

15. The system as in claim 1, wherein a first MS communicates using an air interface communications format and the AXC further comprises means for converting between the air interface communications format and an ATM format.

16. The system as in claim 15, wherein the air interface communications format is a circuit encapsulated format and wherein the first set of signals from the AXC are in packet format, wherein the BSS is further comprised of means to convert from the packet format to circuit encapsulation format when a destination is on a circuit-based system.

17. The system as in claim 16, wherein the circuit encapsulated format is substantially as set forth in IS-634.

18. A base communications switching system (BSS) for use in coupling a wireless communication system for communicating encoded digital data between a mobile subscriber (MS) and a circuit based public switch telephone system (PSTN), the system comprising:

a base station controller (BSC), an ATM-based transcoding subsystem (AXC), and a base transceiver subsystem (BTS);

said system providing for interface to an external source of the encoded digital data coupled from the PSTN, and additionally providing coupling to the MS, for communicating the encoded digital data between the MS and the PSTN;

wherein the BSC provides for mobility management of coupling the encoded digital data between a PSTN source and the MS, independent of mobility characteristics of the MS;

wherein the AXC is further comprised of an ATM switch, a transcoder (XC), a base transceiver system interface (BTSI), and a network interface subsystem (NI), wherein the ATM switch is coupled to each of the BSC, the XC, the BTSI, and the NI, and provides means for coupling and communicating the encoded digital data in an ATM format between subsystems coupled thereto;

wherein the NI is coupled to receive data originating from the PSTN source and to receive data in the ATM format from the ATM switch;

means for conversion of format between circuit based communication from the PSTN and data in the ATM format of ATM communication via the ATM switch;

wherein the BTSI is coupled to receive signals originating from the MS, and the BTSI provides means for coupling to the MS via the BTS, wherein communications between the BTS and the MS is provided in a digital signal air interface protocol (DSAIP), which is coupled via the BTS to the BTSI, wherein the BTSI provides means for converting the DSAIP to the ATM format to provide ATM cell data for coupling to the ATM switch for communication of the ATM cell data to the transcoder (XC);

wherein, for signals originating from the PSTN source, the BTSI provides means for converting from the ATM format to a second ATM format compatible with the BTS, and these signals are converted back into the ATM format for communication to the BTSI and for communication therefrom to the BTS and therefrom to the MS; and

wherein the transcoder (XC) provides means for converting the digital signal air interface protocol (DSAIP) to a second defined protocol required by the PSIN for communication from the MS to the PSTN and means for converting a PCM-based protocol into the DSAIP for communication from the PSTN to the MS.

19. The system as in claim 18, further comprising an operations and maintenance controller (OMC) for initializing each of the transcoder (XC), the BTSI, the NI, and the BSC subsystems, wherein the OMC is coupled to the BSC and the AXC via the ATM switch within the AXC.

20. The system as in claim 19, wherein said OMC further comprises an ATM link for communication of control and information data as ATM cells for providing maintenance and control functions for the AXC and wherein the OMC provides for initialization of the AXC and the BSC.

21. The system as in claim 18, wherein the BSC further comprises means for providing real time control of call setup, soft hand off and call teardown, wherein the BSC comprises an ATM link for communication of control data as ATM cells, and wherein the BSC provides for real time operational control of the AXC.

22. The system as in claim 18, wherein the AXC is further comprised of ATM link interfaces for coupling to ATM links of the BSC and OMC, and wherein the AXC further comprises converter interface means for converting between a plurality of separate air communications protocols from the MS to an ATM data format for use within the AXC.

23. The system as in claim 22, wherein the BTSI further comprises means for providing an interface to at least one of a circuit based base transceiver subsystem and a cell based base transceiver subsystem.

24. The system as in claim 22, wherein the NI further comprises means for data translation of the ATM format to an external circuit encoding format.

25. The system as in claim 18, further comprising means for maintaining operations status of each of the XC, the NI, and the BTSI.

26. The system as in claim 18, further comprising means for selectively controlling BSS operation, so as to provide one of power-up and power-down functions.

27. The system as in claim 18, wherein the mobile subscriber is comprised of a plurality of mobile subscribers, wherein the BSC provides for mobility management of coupling the encoded digital data between the PSTN source and any one of the plurality of mobile subscribers, independent of mobility characteristics of the plurality of mobile subscribers.

28. The system as in claim 18, wherein the NI further comprises means for translation of the ATM format to an external circuit encoding format.

29. The system as in claim 18, wherein the NI is coupled to an external Mobile Switching Center (MSC).

30. The system as in claim 18, wherein the encoded digital data is representative of digitized voice.

31. The system as in claim 18, wherein the encoded digital data is representative of information content.

32. The system as in claim 31, wherein the information content is at least one of voice, fax data, computer data, image data, and multimedia data comprised of control and information data.

33. The system as in claim 18, an initialization step comprises one 20 selected from the group consisting of initializing an address translation table for mapping digital data input to output, and downloading geographical relationships of two or more BTSs to provide a mapping relative to corresponding BTS addresses for handoff purposes.

34. The system as in claim 18, wherein the BTSI is further comprised of means for providing an interface to at least one of a circuit-based and packet-based Base Transceiver Subsystem (BTS).

35. The system as in claim 18, wherein the BSC provides substantially real time dynamic control of connections provided by the ATM switch between the ATM switch, and a plurality of the BTSIs, and wherein the BSC provides means for managing connections that are required to allow mobile station movement amongst a plurality of the BTSs, to thereby provide communication of digital data between the MS and the PSTN independent of a change in location of the MS during said communication.

36. The system as in claim 35, wherein the substantially real-time dynamic control is comprised of at least one selected from the group consisting of connection setup, connection teardown, hand-off management, MS registration, and MS authentication.

37. A base station system (BSS) for coupling to a mobile switching center (MSC) using a first data format and to a base transceiver subsystem (BTS) using a second data format, said BSS comprising:

a base station controller (BSC) providing;

means for providing mobility management for managing a transfer of information content with a wireless transceiver;

means for providing real time control of call setup, hand-off and call teardown functions;

wherein the BSC has a first ATM link for communication of control data as ATM cells;

an operations maintenance control subsystem (OMC), having a second ATM link for communication control data and information content as ATMI cells for providing maintenance and control functions;

an ATM switch, transcoder, and control center (AXC);

wherein the AXC is further comprised of ATM link interfaces for coupling to the first and second ATM links;

wherein the BSC provides for real-time operational control of the AXC; and

wherein the AXC is comprised of means for interfacing between the MSC and the AXC using the first data format and means for interfacing between the BTS and the AXC using the second data format.

38. The system as in claim 37, wherein the AXC is further comprised of a converter interface means for converting between a plurality of separate air communications protocols from the MSC to an ATM data format for use within the AXC.