Shared radio backhaul system
First Claim
1. A method of configuring a cellular wireless communications network comprising a first base station, a second base station, a further base station and a user equipment terminal, the method comprising:
- configuring said first base station in a first transmission mode to;
transceive signals with a user equipment terminal according to a first frame format; and
communicate with an outside network using a dedicated resource, wherein the dedicated resource is separate from resources associated with transceiving signals with the user equipment terminal;
configuring said second base station in a second transmission mode to;
transceive signals with a user equipment terminal and with the further base station according to a second frame format, wherein the second frame format is different than the first frame format, wherein the second base station uses a common resource for transceiving signals with the user equipment terminal and the further base station; and
communicate with the outside network using a dedicated resource, wherein the dedicated resource is separate from resources associated with transceiving signals with the user equipment terminal and the further base station; and
configuring said further base station in the second transmission mode to transceive signals with a user equipment terminal and with the second base station according to the second frame format, wherein the further base station uses a common resource for transceiving signals with the user equipment terminal and the second base station, and wherein the further base station communicates with the outside network via the second base station,in which the first frame format comprises a downlink portion for transmission of signals from the first base station to a user equipment terminal and an uplink portion for transmission of signals from said user equipment terminal to the first base station, and the transceiving of signals between said second and further base stations according to the second frame format occurs wholly within said downlink portion of the first frame format.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Embodiments of the invention relate to wireless communications networks, and more specifically to method and apparatus relating to wireless backhaul for cellular wireless systems. Increasing data capacity of cellular wireless systems places increasing demands on the capacity of the two way connection, known as backhaul, between a cellular base station and a telecommunications network such as the PSTN backhaul, since this is the connection that has to convey the wireless-originating traffic to its destination, often in an entirely different network. Known backhaul links include leased lines, microwave links, optical fibre links or radio resources for relaying backhaul traffic between base stations. The fixed line solutions are expensive to implement and maintain, while the radio solutions suffer from interference from transmissions between base stations with transmissions from user equipment to base stations which are not communicating with other base stations. In embodiments of the invention, the relaying of access data between base stations utilises radio resources other than radio resources used by transmissions from user equipment within an area of contiguous wireless coverage. The benefit of this approach is that it provides a means of avoiding interference between inter-base station transmissions and user equipment to base station transmissions.
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Citations
16 Claims
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1. A method of configuring a cellular wireless communications network comprising a first base station, a second base station, a further base station and a user equipment terminal, the method comprising:
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configuring said first base station in a first transmission mode to; transceive signals with a user equipment terminal according to a first frame format; and communicate with an outside network using a dedicated resource, wherein the dedicated resource is separate from resources associated with transceiving signals with the user equipment terminal; configuring said second base station in a second transmission mode to; transceive signals with a user equipment terminal and with the further base station according to a second frame format, wherein the second frame format is different than the first frame format, wherein the second base station uses a common resource for transceiving signals with the user equipment terminal and the further base station; and communicate with the outside network using a dedicated resource, wherein the dedicated resource is separate from resources associated with transceiving signals with the user equipment terminal and the further base station; and configuring said further base station in the second transmission mode to transceive signals with a user equipment terminal and with the second base station according to the second frame format, wherein the further base station uses a common resource for transceiving signals with the user equipment terminal and the second base station, and wherein the further base station communicates with the outside network via the second base station, in which the first frame format comprises a downlink portion for transmission of signals from the first base station to a user equipment terminal and an uplink portion for transmission of signals from said user equipment terminal to the first base station, and the transceiving of signals between said second and further base stations according to the second frame format occurs wholly within said downlink portion of the first frame format. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. A cellular wireless communications comprising:
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a first base station; and a second base station; wherein the first base station is configured to; transceive signals to and from a user equipment terminal according to a first frame format using a first wireless resource; and communicate with an outside network using a second resource, wherein the second resource is separate from the first resource; wherein the second base station is configured to; transceive signals to and from a user equipment terminal and a further base station according to a second frame format using the first wireless resource, wherein the second frame format is different from the first frame format; and communicate with outside network using a third resource, wherein the third resource is separate from the first resource, and wherein the further base station communicates with the outside network via the second base station; wherein the first frame format comprises a downlink portion for transmission of signals from the first base station to a user equipment terminal and an uplink portion for transmitting signals from said user equipment terminal to the first base station, and the second and further base stations are configured to transceive signals between the second and further base stations according to the second frame format wholly within said downlink portion of the first frame format. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16)
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Specification