Cellular base station with integrated multipoint radio access and intercell linking
First Claim
1. An interface system at a base station in a cell within a cellular wireless network for providing bi-directional wireless communications to Network Interface Units (NIUs) at customer sites within the cell, said base station having a highly directional antenna for providing a point to point inter-cell radio link for communicating with a base station in a neighboring cell, the interface system further comprising a multi-services switch equipped with one or more first radio interface cards for providing wireless communications between the base station and the NIUs via said highly directional antenna and one or more second radio interface cards for providing the point to point inter-cell radio link.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A scaleable, broadband wireless system for providing radio access to a metropolitan area. The metropolitan area is sub-divided into overlapping cellular areas each having a base station for communication with network interface units at customer sites within each cell. ATM Radio Interface Cards (ARICs), both time division multiple access (TDMA) and frequency division multiple access (FDMA), in each base station implement protocols for bi-directionally linking the NIUs with the ATM backbone. FDMA ARICs provide point to point radio access between base stations over intercell links. The capacity of the system can be scaled by adding the appropriate ARICs as required to meet demand.
58 Citations
18 Claims
- 1. An interface system at a base station in a cell within a cellular wireless network for providing bi-directional wireless communications to Network Interface Units (NIUs) at customer sites within the cell, said base station having a highly directional antenna for providing a point to point inter-cell radio link for communicating with a base station in a neighboring cell, the interface system further comprising a multi-services switch equipped with one or more first radio interface cards for providing wireless communications between the base station and the NIUs via said highly directional antenna and one or more second radio interface cards for providing the point to point inter-cell radio link.
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9. A base station in a cell of a cellular, wireless communications network for providing wireless, bi-directional communication with network interface units (NIUS) within the cell, the base station further having a highly directional antenna for providing a point to point inter-cell radio link with a base station in a neighboring cell, and a multi-services switch equipped with a first radio interface card for providing the wireless, bi-directional communication between the base station and the NIUs and a second interface card for providing the point to point radio inter-cell link, said radio interface cards being, selectively, one of the following:
- frequency division multiple access (FDMA) or time division multiple access (TDMA).
- View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. A method of providing communications between base stations in a cellular, wireless network having multiple cells, each of the multiple cells having a base station, the method comprising:
- providing a multi-services switch at each of the base stations, each switch being equipped with a radio interface card for providing point to point bi-directional communication with other base stations in the network;
providing a network manager in association with at least one of the base stations for configuring the radio interface cards, and providing a directional antenna for each multi-services switch to support point to point bi-directional communication between base stations over a radio inter-cell link, wherein each of said cells in sub-divided into multiple sectors and said multi-services switch is equipped with second radio interface cards for each sector, said second radio interface cards for wireless, bi-directional communication with network interface units (NIUs) within each sector. - View Dependent Claims (18)
- providing a multi-services switch at each of the base stations, each switch being equipped with a radio interface card for providing point to point bi-directional communication with other base stations in the network;
Specification