System and method for virtual sector provisioning and network configuration

• US 7,173,915 B2
• Filed: 06/28/2002
• Issued: 02/06/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 06/29/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Harris Corporation (L3Harris Technologies, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Harris Corporation (L3Harris Technologies, Inc.)
• Inventors: Rostron, Andy E., Bernheim, Henrik F.
• Primary Examiner(s): Vu; Huy D.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Shand; Roberta A.
• Application Number:
  US10/183,490
• Publication Number:
  US 20030012208A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,684 Days
• Field of Search: 370/310, 370/310.1, 370/315, 370/319, 370/321, 370/323, 370/325, 370/326, 370/328, 370/329, 370/330, 370/336, 370/337, 370/338, 370/342, 370/345, 370/347, 370/407, 455/62, 455/63, 455/65, 455/272, 455/277.1, 455/277.2, 455/278.1, 455/446, 455/561, 455/562
• US Class Current: 370/328
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/22 Alternate routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/28 using route fault recovery
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/14 Multichannel or multilink protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/40 for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity, e.g. service redundancy protocols, protocol state redundancy or protocol service redirection management of faults, events, alarms or notifications in data switching networks H04L41/06
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/00 Network planning, e.g. coverage or traffic planning tools; Network deployment, e.g. resource partitioning or cells structures
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/24 Cell structures
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/04 Arrangements for maintaining operational condition

Abstract

The present invention provides systems and methods wherein communication link redundancy may be provided which is optimized to the primary links. Specifically, a redundant link portion of a communication system may be deployed to provide redundant links for a primary link portion of the communication system having substantially greater information communication capacity. However, through the use of isolation of portions of the primary link capacity, such as through the preferred embodiment sectors, sufficient redundant link capacity may be maintained economically. According to a preferred embodiment, a single redundant sector may be coextensive with a plurality of primary sectors and, thus, be relied upon for providing redundant links for any such primary sector. Preferred embodiments allow for the subsectoring of primary sectors while maintaining the configuration of a redundant sector corresponding thereto.

Claims

1. A point to multipoint communication system with a hub, a plurality of nodes geographically spaced apart from the hub and capable of wireless communication with the hub, wherein communication links between the nodes and the hub are a plurality of port to port connections distinguished by trunk type and are capable of being distinguished by path, beam or virtual sector, the improvement comprising a plurality of hierarchically arranged look up tables relating entries in port slots to entries in circuit pack slots;

wherein the plural look up tables correspond port table entries to trunk type, trunk type to path, path to beam, beam to virtual sector and virtual sector to circuit pack table entries.

2. The communication system of claim 1, wherein one of the plural look up tables correspond network trunk ports to circuit pack ports.

3. The communication system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of look up tables are individually reconfigurable.

4. The communication system of claim 1, wherein said communications system operates in the millimeter wave frequency.

5. The communication system of claim 4, wherein said communications system is a time division duplex system.

6. The communication system of claim 5, wherein said communications system is an adaptive time division duplex system.

7. The communication system of claim 6, wherein the data density within each frame is dynamically variable.

8. The communication system of claim 6, wherein the adaptive time division duplexing is dynamically adjustable as a function of the forward and reverse data traffic on the communication system.

9. The communication system of claim 1, wherein said look up tables are adapted to facilitate rapid field replacement.

10. In a point to multipoint communication system with a hub, a plurality of nodes geographically spaced apart from the hub and capable of wireless communication with the hub, wherein communication links between the nodes and the hub are a plurality of port to port connections distinguished by trunk type and are capable of being distinguished by path, beam or virtual sector, a method of establishing a port to port connection, the improvement comprising the step of using a plurality of look up tables heirarchically arranged to relate entries in port slots to entries in circuit pack slots;

wherein the plural look up tables correspond port table entries to trunk type, trunk type to path, path to beam, beam to virtual sector and virtual sector to circuit pack table entries.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein one of the plural look up tables correspond network trunk ports to circuit pack ports.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the plurality of look up tables are individually reconfigurable.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein said communications system operates in the millimeter wave frequency.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein said communication system is a time division duplex system.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein said communication system is an adaptive time division duplex system.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the data density within each frame is dynamically variable.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the adaptive time division duplexing is dynamically adjustable as a function of the forward and reverse data traffic on the communication system.

18. The method of claim 10, wherein said look up tables are adapted to facilitate rapid field replacement.