Wideband wireless access local loop based on millimeter wave technology

• US 6,560,213 B1
• Filed: 03/24/1999
• Issued: 05/06/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 03/24/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: HRL Laboratories LLC (The Boeing Co.)
• Original Assignee: HRL Laboratories LLC (The Boeing Co.)
• Inventors: Izadpanah, Hossein, Hsu, Hui-Pin, Gregoire, Daniel J., Schaffner, James H.
• Primary Examiner(s): Maung, Nay
• Assistant Examiner(s): GELIN, JEAN ALLAND
• Application Number:
  US09/275,761
• Time in Patent Office: 1,504 Days
• Field of Search: 370/328, 370/329, 370/338, 370/277, 370/278, 370/279, 370/280, 455/11.1, 455/16, 455/17, 455/20, 455/21, 455/22, 455/23, 455/500, 455/501, 455/42, 455/421
• US Class Current: 370/338
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/14 WLL [Wireless Local Loop]; RLL [Radio Local Loop]

Abstract

A wideband wireless access local loop system using millimeter wavelength wireless technology to provide wireless access to a series of customer interfaces, via a series of access interface points, to a backbone network of central nodes interconnected by a high transmission-rate broadband medium such as fiber optic cable. The network architecture is useful for providing a two-way high-speed data transfer system to structures without the need for physical wiring. Data transfer within the network may optionally be either analog or digital, and may be optimized for either two-way communication or one-way distribution.

Claims

1. A wideband wireless access local loop network including:

a. one or more customer interfaces, at least one millimeter wave transceiver/antenna with processing equipment operatively attached thereto, such that said processing equipment processes signals received by the millimeter wave transceiver/antenna, and such that the millimeter wave transceiver/antenna transmits signals generated by the processing equipment;

b. one or more access interface points, connected to an information network, each having a signal transfer means and at least one millimeter wave transceiver/antenna operatively connected thereto;

said signal transfer means operatively connected to said millimeter wave transceiver/antenna to allow a signal received in the millimeter wave transceiver/antenna to be transferred to a data network and to allow a signal to be received from a data network to be transferred for broadcast by the millimeter wave transceiver/antenna of the access interface point to the millimeter wave transceiver/antenna of a customer interface; and

c. said millimeter wave transceiver/antenna of the customer interfaces and the millimeter wave transceiver/antenna of the access interface points operatively positioned less than 1000 meters apart such that a bi-directional, line-of-sight transmission is made between the millimeter wave transceiver/antenna of the customer interfaces and the millimeter wave transceiver/antenna of the access interface points;

whereby a signal from the customer interface processing equipment is transferred, as a millimeter wave signal, to the access interface point and on to the information network, and whereby a signal from the information network is transferred, as a millimeter wave signal, to the customer interface processing equipment.

2. A wideband wireless access local loop network as set forth in claim 1 wherein:

a. said signal transfer means of the access interface points further includes an up-converting means and an optical to electrical converting means;

the up-converting means operatively attached to the millimeter wave transceiver/antenna of the access interface point and to the optical to electrical converting means such that an optical signal is received in the optical to electrical converting means and converted therein to an electrical signal having a frequency, the electrical signal being passed from the optical to electrical converting means into the up-converting means, increasing the frequency of the electrical signal in preparation for its transmission by the millimeter wave transceiver/antenna; and

b. said signal transfer means of the access interface points further includes a down-converting means and an electrical to optical signal;

the down-converting means being operatively attached to the millimeter wave transceiver/antenna of the access interface point and to the electrical to optical converting means such that an electrical signal is received by the millimeter wave transceiver/antenna of said access interface point as an electrical signal having a frequency, the electrical signal being passed from the millimeter wave transceiver/antenna into the down-converting means, decreasing the frequency of the electrical signal, and then from the down-converting means into the electrical to optical converting means, where it is converted to an optical signal for optical transmission;

whereby an optical signal is received in the optical to electrical converting means of the access interface points and converted into a millimeter wave transmission by the millimeter wave transceiver/antenna or, conversely, a millimeter wave signal is received by the millimeter wave transceiver/antenna of the access interface points and converted into an optical form for transmission into a communication network or other system.

3. A wideband wireless access local loop network as set forth in claim 1 wherein the millimeter wave transceiver/antenna of the customer interfaces are replaced with millimeter wave receiving antennas, whereby customer interfaces of the wideband wireless access local loop network is selectively configured as receivers of broadcast services from the access interface points.

4. A wideband wireless access local loop network as set forth in claim 1 wherein:

a. said processing equipment of the customer interfaces includes a down-converting means and a broadcast services portion, the broadcast services portion including a service selector means and an output device;

b. said down-converting means operatively connected to the millimeter wave transceiver/antenna of the customer interfaces and to the service selector of the broadcast services portion such that a millimeter wave signal is received by the millimeter wave transceiver/antenna of the customer interfaces and passed to the down-converting means as an electrical signal having a frequency, the frequency being reduced by the down-converting means, the electrical signal then being passed from the down-converting means to the service selector means to extract a desired portion of the electrical signal; and

c. said service selector means being operatively connected to the output device such that the desired portion of the electrical signal is interpreted and displayed by the output device;

whereby a signal is broadcast from the millimeter wave transceiver/antenna of the access interface points and received by the millimeter wave transceiver/antenna of the customer interfaces, down-converted into a useful frequency, and channel-selected for a desired portion of the signal so that it is displayed in an output device, in the form of a television, an audio receiving station, or any other suitable display device whether audio, video, or some other format.

5. A wideband wireless access local loop network as set forth in claim 3 wherein:

a. said processing equipment of the customer interfaces includes a down-converting means and a broadcast services portion, the broadcast services portion including a service selector means and an output device;

b. said down-converting means operatively connected to the millimeter wave receiving antenna of the customer interfaces and to the service selector of the broadcast services portion such that a millimeter wave signal is received by the millimeter wave receiving antenna of the customer interfaces and passed to the down-converting means as an electrical signal having a frequency, the frequency being reduced by the down-converting means, the signal then being passed from the down-converting means to the service selector means to extract a desired portion of the electrical signal; and

c. said service selector means being operatively connected to said output device such that the desired portion of the electrical signal is interpreted and displayed by the output device;

whereby a signal is broadcast from the millimeter wave transceiver/antenna of the access interface points and received by the millimeter wave receiving antenna of the customer interfaces, down-converted into a useful frequency, and channel-selected for a desired portion of the signal so that it is displayed in an output device, in the form of a television, an audio receiving station, or any other suitable display device whether audio, video, or some other format.

6. A wideband wireless access local loop network as set forth in claim 4 wherein:

a. said processing equipment of the customer interfaces further includes a down-converting means, a splitter, and an interactive portion, said interactive portion including a first optional band pass filtering means, an intermediate frequency down-converting means, a modem, a bi-directional user interface, an intermediate frequency up-converting means, and a second optional band pass filtering means;

b. said down-converting means operatively connected to said receiving portion of said millimeter wave transceiver/antenna of said customer interfaces such that a millimeter wave received signal having a frequency is received in said millimeter wave transceiver/antenna of said customer interfaces and passed to said down-converting means as an electrical received signal having a frequency, said frequency of said electrical received signal being reduced to an intermediate frequency by said down-converting means of said customer interfaces,

c. said splitter operatively connected to said down-converting means such that said electrical received signal having an intermediate frequency is divided into a first received signal part having a frequency and a second received signal part, said first signal received part having a frequency passing into said service selector of said broadcast services portion, and said second received signal part passing into said first optional band pass filtering means of said interactive portion of said customer interfaces to be filtered to eliminate unwanted signal noise;

d. said intermediate frequency down-converting means operatively connected to said first optional band pass filter to receive and further reduce said frequency of said second received signal part to a lower-intermediate frequency;

e. said modem operatively connected to said intermediate frequency down-converting means and to said user interface in order to receive and demodulate said second received signal part from said intermediate frequency down-converting means into a demodulated signal, said demodulated signal being passed into the user interface;

f. said user interface further connected to said modem such that an electrical sent signal having a frequency is passed from said user interface to said modem and modulated therein;

g. said modem further connected to said intermediate frequency up-converting means such that said frequency of said electrical sent signal is increased to an intermediate frequency;

h. said intermediate frequency up-converting means operatively connected to said second optional band pass filtering means such that the intermediate frequency electrical sent signal is filtered for undesired noise in preparation for transmission; and

i. said up-converting means of said customer interface operatively attached to said second optional band pass filtering means and to said millimeter wave transceiver/antenna of said customer interface;

said up-converting means receiving and increasing the frequency of said intermediate frequency electrical sent signal and to a transmission frequency, and passing said transmission frequency electrical sent signal to said millimeter wave transceiving signal for transmission as a millimeter wave sent signal.

7. A wideband wireless access local loop network as set forth in claim 2 further including broadband fiber-optic cable and at least one central node having data processing equipment, said central nodes being interconnected and connected to said access interface points by said broadband fiber optic cable;

whereby said central nodes are operative to send and receive signals to and from the customer interfaces via the access interface points as well as to send and receive signals to and from other central nodes in the network.

8. A wideband wireless access local loop network as set forth in claim 7 wherein;

a. said data processing equipment of the central nodes includes one or more optical to electrical converting means, a one or more main down-converting means, one or more channel selectors/combiners, one or more modems, a multiplexer/demultiplexer, and a multi-service processing unit;

b. said optical to electrical converting means of said central nodes connected to said broadband fiber optic cable to receive an optical signal therefrom and to convert it into an received electrical signal having a frequency and channels;

c. said main down-converting means connected to said optical to electrical converting means to decrease said frequency of said received electrical signal to an intermediate frequency;

d. said channel selectors connected to said down-converting means to receive said intermediate frequency received electrical signal and to extract desired channels therefrom, said channels further including communication signals;

e. said modems connected to said channel selectors/combiners to receive and demodulate said desired channels of said intermediate frequency received electrical signal;

f. said multiplexer/demultiplexer operatively connected to said channel selectors/combiners and to said multi-service processing unit, said channel selectors/combiners operative to receive said demodulated desired channels of said intermediate frequency received electrical signal to separate desired communication signals therefrom for passage to the multi-service processing unit;

g. said multi-service processing unit further connected to said multiplexer/demultiplexer such that one or more sent electrical signals each having a frequency is transmitted from the multi-service processing unit to the multiplexer/demultiplexer and combined for further transmission in channels;

h. said multiplexer/demultiplexer further connected to said modems, said electrical signals transmitted in channels passed through said modems for modulation;

i. said modems further connected to said channel selectors/combiners, said channels of said modulated electrical signals combined into a sent electrical transmission having a frequency by said channel selectors/combiners;

j. said central nodes further include one or more main up-converting means and one or more electrical to optical converting means, said up-converting means connected to said channel selectors/combiners to receive said sent electrical transmission and to increase the frequency thereof; and

k. said electrical to optical converting means connected to said main up-converting means and to said broadband fiber optic cable, said electrical to optical converting means receiving a sent electrical transmission from said up-converting means for conversion into an optical signal for transmission along the broadband fiber optic cable, whereby a signal is received from the network via the broadband fiber optic cable and converted into useful electrical form for processing in the multi-service processing unit or is sent from the multi-service processing unit and processed for conversion and transmission to the network via the broadband fiber optic cable.

9. A wideband wireless access local loop network as set forth in claim 8 wherein said central node further includes at least one central node millimeter wave transceiver/antenna, at least one millimeter wave transmission down-converting means, and at least one millimeter wave transmission up-converting means;

a. said central node millimeter wave transceiver/antenna operatively connected to said millimeter wave transmission down-converting means such that a millimeter wave electrical transmission is received by said central node millimeter wave transceiver/antenna from said millimeter wave transceiver/antenna of said customer interfaces and down converted by said millimeter wave transmission down-converting means into a frequency useful by the main down-converting means of said central nodes, said millimeter wave transmission down-converting means operatively attached to said main down-converting means of said central nodes for further down-conversion; and

b. said millimeter wave transmission up-converting means of said central node operatively attached to said main up-converting means of said central node such that a sent electrical transmission is received from said main up-converting means for further frequency increase;

said central node millimeter wave transceiver/antenna operatively connected to said millimeter wave transmission up-converting means such that said sent electrical transmission is transmitted to said millimeter wave transceiver/antenna of said customer interfaces by said central node millimeter wave transceiver/antenna;

whereby the central node contains the functional equivalent of the equipment resident at the access interface points for transmission of data to and from customer interfaces which are close to the central node without the need for additional equipment required by fiber optics.

10. A wideband wireless access local loop network as set forth in claim 7 wherein:

a. said broadband fiber optic cable between the central nodes and the access interface points includes a fiber optic cable splitter/combiner, said fiber optic cable splitter/combiner operative to split said broadband fiber optic cable into transmitting broadband fiber optic cable segments;

b. said access interface points further including wavelength selectors, said wavelength selectors optically connected to the transmitting broadband fiber optic cable segments and to the electrical to optical converting means of the access interface points to select and pass only a desired wavelength of an optical transmission sent from a central node via the broadband fiber optic cable in preparation for broadcast to the customer interface point by the access interface point;

whereby a wavelength division multiplexed mixture of signals is sent along a broadband fiber optic cable, from a central node, to be split, demultiplexed, and wavelength-selected for the desired signal by the wavelength selector for broadcast by the access interface point; and

c. said access interface points further including receiving broadband fiber optic cable segments operatively connecting the wavelength selectors to the fiber splitter/combiners such that a signal received in an access interface point from a customer interface is converted to an optical signal having a desired wavelength, wavelength division multiplexed by the wavelength selector to combine signals for transmission into the fiber splitter/combiner to be combined with other signals, and then sent to a central node.