Self-provisioning antenna system and method

• US 8,405,547 B2
• Filed: 12/01/2010
• Issued: 03/26/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 12/01/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sierra Wireless America Incorporated (Sierra Wireless Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Accel Networks LLC (Sierra Wireless Incorporated)
• Inventors: Gianinni, Mark, Lyons, Steven, Myers, Steven L.
• Primary Examiner(s): LIU, HARRY K
• Application Number:
  US12/927,990
• Publication Number:
  US 20120139788A1
• Time in Patent Office: 846 Days
• Field of Search: 342/372
• US Class Current: 342/372
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 1/007 specially adapted for indoor communication
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 21/24 Combinations of antenna units polarised in different directions for transmitting or receiving circularly and elliptically polarised waves or waves linearly polarised in any direction circularly polarised patch antennas H01Q9/0428; circularly polarised horns H01Q13/0241; cross-polarised horns H01Q13/0258; polarisation converters H01Q15/242; cross-polarised rear feeds H01Q19/136; crossed polarisation dual antenna H01Q25/001
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 3/005 using remotely controlled antenna positioning or scanning
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 3/24 varying the orientation by switching energy from one active radiating element to another, e.g. for beam switching

Abstract

A self-provisioning antenna (SPA) system and method provides for automatic simultaneous remote optimization of one or more field antenna terminals over a wireless network. A central server communicates with a field controller to modify configurations of any directional radiating elements, filters settings, and low noise amplifier settings associated with one or more remotely located antenna banks, determines the optimal configurations based on readings of field signal quality metrics including RSSI, EC/IO, and date rate standard samples, and allows a human operator to select a configuration.

Claims

1. A self-provisioning antenna system comprising:

a primary antenna bank and a secondary antenna bank, each of said banks comprising one or more directional radiating elements, said primary antenna bank further comprising means of controlling its orientation and a transmit/receive port coupled via a field modem to a communications medium, and said secondary antenna bank further comprising means of controlling its orientation and a receive-only port coupled via said field modem to a communications medium;

a field controller, comprised of a low-noise microprocessor and a communications interface, coupled to said primary and secondary antenna banks by one or more sets of control lines, and for receiving, acknowledging, and executing commands from a central server to configure the respective orientations of said primary and secondary antenna banks utilizing said means of controlling the orientation of said primary antenna bank and said means of controlling the orientation of said secondary antenna bank, said field controller thence connected via said field modem to said communications medium;

a central server, coupled via a central modem to said communications medium, for receiving field signal quality metrics from said primary antenna bank and said secondary antenna bank via said field modem, calculating one or more values to determine an optimal configuration for the respective orientations of said primary antenna bank and said secondary antenna bank based on said field signal quality metrics, and transmitting commands over said communications medium to said one or more field controllers to implement said respective optimal configurations for said primary antenna bank and for said secondary antenna bank.

2. The self-provisioning antenna system of claim 1, in which the primary antenna bank and the secondary antenna bank are spaced between 6 and 18 inches apart.

3. The self-provisioning antenna system of claim 1, in which the primary antenna bank and the secondary antenna bank each contain four directional radiating elements disposed in a square pattern, each said directional radiating element vertically polarized with a beamwidth of approximately a quadrant.

4. The self-provisioning antenna system of claim 1, in which the communications medium is a celluar telephone network.

5. The self-provisioning antenna system of claim 1, in which the field modem comprises a programmable microprocessor and memory.

6. The self-provisioning antenna system of claim 1 in which the means of controlling the orientation of the primary antenna and the means of controlling the orientation of the secondary antenna each comprise a configuration of RF switches combined to provide a single output.

7. The self-provisioning antenna system of claim 6 in which the RF switches are within an integrated circuit.

8. The self-provisioning antenna system of claim 1, in which at least one of the antenna banks further comprises one or more addressable arrays of filters.

9. The self-provisioning antenna system of claim 8, in which at least one of said arrays has three filters, the first said filter within a range of 869-894 MHz, the second said filter within a range of 1930-1990 MHz, and the third said filter within a range of 2110-2170 MHz.

10. The self-provisioning antenna system of claim 1, in which the secondary antenna bank further comprises a Low Noise Amplifier.

11. The self-provisioning antenna system of claim 1, further comprising an RF Noise Detector.

12. A method for remotely provisioning an antenna based on commands from a central server site, comprising the steps of:

receiving and implementing at a remote terminal site one or more commands from a central server to select a primary antenna bank at said remote terminal site;

receiving and implementing at said remote terminal site one or more commands from said central server to configure said primary antenna bank by activating one or more directional radiating elements comprising said primary antenna bank;

measuring at said remote terminal site field signal quality metrics for each configuration of said primary antenna bank;

transmitting said field signal quality metrics for each configuration of said primary antenna bank from said remote terminal site to said central server;

receiving at said remote terminal site a command from said central server to implement a particular configuration for said primary antenna bank based on said field signal quality metrics for each configuration of said primary antenna bank, receiving and implementing at said remote terminal site one or more commands from a central server to select a secondary antenna bank at said remote terminal site;

receiving and implementing at said remote terminal site one or more commands from said central server to configure said secondary antenna bank by activating one or more directional radiating elements comprising said secondary antenna bank;

measuring at said remote terminal site field signal quality metrics for each configuration of said secondary antenna bank;

transmitting said field signal quality metrics for each configuration of said secondary antenna bank from said remote terminal site to said central server;

receiving at said remote terminal site a command from said central server to implement a particular configuration for said secondary antenna bank based on said field signal quality metrics for each configuration of said secondary antenna bank.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising the steps of:

receiving and implementing at said remote terminal site one or more commands from said central server to further configure said primary antenna bank by activating one or more filters within one or more filter banks coupled to said primary antenna bank; and

receiving and implementing at said remote terminal site one or more commands from said central server to further configure said secondary antenna bank by activating one or more filters within one or more filter banks coupled to said secondary antenna bank.

14. The method of claim 12, further comprising the steps of:

receiving and implementing at said remote terminal site one or more commands from said central server to further configure said secondary antenna bank by activating one or more low noise amplifiers coupled to said secondary antenna bank.

15. The method of claim 13, further comprising the steps of:

receiving and implementing at said remote terminal site one or more commands from said central server to further configure said secondary antenna bank by activating one or more low noise amplifiers coupled to said secondary antenna bank.

16. A method for remotely provisioning an antenna from a central server site, comprising the steps of:

transmitting one or more commands to a remote terminal site to select a primary antenna bank at said remote terminal site;

transmitting to said remote terminal site one or more commands to configure one or more directional radiating elements comprising said primary antenna bank;

receiving from the remote terminal site field signal quality metrics for each configuration of said primary antenna bank;

calculating a link quality score for each different configuration of said primary antenna bank based on said field signal quality metrics for each configuration of said primary antenna bank;

determining which configuration of said primary antenna bank produced the highest link quality score;

transmitting to said remote terminal site one or more commands to configure the one or more directional radiating elements within said primary antenna bank based upon said field signal quality metrics for each configuration of said primary antenna bank;

transmitting one or more commands to a remote terminal site to select a secondary antenna bank at said remote terminal site;

transmitting to said remote terminal site one or more commands to configure one or more directional radiating elements comprising said secondary antenna bank;

receiving from the remote terminal site field signal quality metrics for each configuration of said secondary antenna bank;

calculating a link quality score for each different configuration of said secondary antenna bank based on said field signal quality metrics for each configuration of said secondary antenna bank;

determining which configuration of said secondary antenna bank produced the highest link quality score; and

transmitting to said remote terminal site one or more commands to configure the one or more directional radiating elements within said secondary antenna bank based upon said field signal quality metrics for each configuration of said secondary antenna bank.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising the steps of:

transmitting to said remote terminal site one or more commands from said central server to further configure said primary antenna bank by activating one or more filters within one or more filter banks coupled to said primary antenna bank; and

transmitting to said remote terminal site one or more commands from said central server to further configure said secondary antenna bank by activating one or more filters within one or more filter banks coupled to said secondary antenna bank.

18. The method of claim 16, further comprising the steps of:

transmitting to said remote terminal site one or more commands from said central server to further configure said secondary antenna bank by activating one or more low noise amplifiers coupled to said secondary antenna bank.

19. The method of claim 17, further comprising the steps of:

transmitting to said remote terminal site one or more commands from said central server to further configure said secondary antenna bank by activating one or more low noise amplifiers coupled to said secondary antenna bank.