Integration panel

• US 9,107,086 B2
• Filed: 02/26/2013
• Issued: 08/11/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 07/20/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Outdoor Wireless Networks LLC (CommScope Holding Company, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: ADC Telecommunications Incorporated (TE Connectivity Limited)
• Inventors: Leimeister, Eric, Vucich, David, Zavadsky, Dean, Wala, Philip M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Jung, Min
• Application Number:
  US13/777,275
• Publication Number:
  US 20140022914A1
• Time in Patent Office: 896 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/00 Supervisory, monitoring or testing arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/04 Arrangements for maintaining operational condition
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/08 Testing, supervising or monitoring using real traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/085 Access point devices with remote components
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 92/045 between access point and backbone network device

Abstract

An integration panel comprises a control module, a plurality of radio frequency (RF) modules, and a backplane configured to couple the plurality of RF modules to the control module. Each of the plurality of RF modules is configured to be coupled to a respective network device and to a host unit of a distributed antenna system. Each RF module is further configured to condition the RF signals received from the respective network device and to provide the conditioned RF signals to the host unit. Each of the RF modules is configured to sample the conditioned RF signals and to provide the sampled RF signals to the control module via the backplane. The control module is configured to perform signal analysis of the sampled RF signals and to provide the results of the signal analysis to a user device located remotely from the integration panel.

Claims

1. An integration panel comprising:

a control module;

a plurality of radio frequency (RF) modules; and

a backplane configured to couple the plurality of RF modules to the control module;

wherein each of the plurality of RF modules is configured to be coupled to a respective network device and to a host unit of a distributed antenna system, each RF module further configured to condition the received RF signals received from the respective network device and to provide the conditioned RF signals to the host unit;

wherein each of the RF modules is configured to sample the conditioned RF signals and to provide the sampled RF signals to the control module via the backplane;

wherein the control module is configured to perform signal analysis of the sampled RF signals received from each of the plurality of RF modules and to provide the results of the signal analysis to a user device located remotely from the integration panel.

2. The integration panel of claim 1, wherein the control module comprises:

a plurality of networking ports, a first networking port of the networking ports configured to be coupled to the user device via an external network which is not used for communicating signals between network devices and wireless devices in communication with the distributed antenna system;

wherein at least one other networking port of the plurality of networking ports is coupled to a network port in a respective separate integration panel;

wherein the control module further comprises a processor configured to route signals received from the user device over the first networking port to the corresponding separate integration panel such that a plurality of integration panels communicate with the user device via the first networking port.

3. The integration panel of claim 1, wherein the control module is configured to provide a master graphical user interface to the user device, the master graphical user interface configured to provide remote access to both the host unit and the control module.

4. The integration panel of claim 1, wherein each of the RF modules is configured to monitor and control the power of signals received from the respective network device automatically based on one or more of the received RF signals'"'"' protocol, service provider, or frequency band.

5. The integration panel of claim 1, further comprising:

a splitter/combiner tray coupled to each of the plurality of RF modules;

wherein the splitter/combiner tray is configured to combine RF signals from two or more of the plurality of RF modules for input to the host unit and to separate signals received from the host unit for delivery of the separated signals to the respective RF module.

6. The integration panel of claim 5, wherein the splitter/combiner tray comprises an uplink switching matrix and a downlink switching matrix, each of the uplink switching matrix and the downlink switching matrix comprising a plurality of absorptive RF switches coupled to each RF module.

7. The integration panel of claim 5, wherein each RF module includes a tone generator configured to inject a diagnostic tone into a downlink signal path of the RF signals received from the respective network device;

wherein the splitter/combiner tray includes at least one respective RF detector configured to detect a corresponding diagnostic tone in order to determine signal loss due to the splitter/combiner tray.

8. The integration panel of claim 1, wherein each of the RF modules is configured to support a respective RF frequency band, each respective RF frequency band within a frequency range of 690 MHz to 2700 MHz.

9. A network comprising:

a distributed antenna system comprising a host unit and a plurality of remote antenna units coupled to the host unit, the remote antenna units configured to transmit and receive wireless signals; and

an integration panel, the integration panel comprising;

a control module;

a plurality of radio frequency (RF) modules; and

a backplane configured to couple the plurality of RF modules to the control module;

wherein each of the plurality of RF modules is coupled to a respective one of a plurality of network devices configured to transmit and receive signals according to a respective communication technology, each RF module further configured to condition signals received from the respective network device and to provide the conditioned RF signals to the host unit of the distributed antenna system;

wherein each of the RF modules is configured to sample the conditioned RF signals and to provide the sampled RF signals to the control module via the backplane;

wherein the control module is configured to perform signal analysis of the sampled RF signals and to provide the results of the signal analysis to a user device located remotely from the active integration panel.

10. The network of claim 9, wherein the control module comprises:

a plurality of networking ports, a first networking port of the networking ports configured to be coupled to the user device via an external network which is not used for communicating signals between the network devices and wireless devices in communication with the distributed antenna system;

wherein at least one other networking port of the plurality of networking ports is coupled to a network port in at least one second integration panel;

wherein the control module further comprises a processor configured to route signals received from the user device over the first networking port to the corresponding second integration panel such that a plurality of integration panels communicate with the user device via the first networking port.

11. The network of claim 9, wherein the control module is configured to provide a master graphical user interface to the user device, the master graphical user interface configured to provide remote access to both the host unit and the control module.

12. The network of claim 9, wherein the host unit is configured to provide a master graphical user interface to the user device, the master graphical user interface configured to provide remote access to both the host unit and the control module.

13. The network of claim 9, wherein each of the RF modules is configured to monitor and control the power of signals received from the respective network device automatically based on one or more of the received RF signals'"'"' protocol, service provider, or frequency band.

14. The network of claim 9, wherein the integration panel further comprises:

a splitter/combiner tray coupled to each of the plurality of RF modules;

wherein the splitter/combiner tray is configured to combine RF signals from two or more of the plurality of RF modules for input to the host unit and to separate signals received from the host unit for delivery of the separated signals to the corresponding RF module.

15. The network of claim 14, wherein the splitter/combiner tray comprises an uplink switching matrix and a downlink switching matrix, each of the uplink switching matrix and the downlink switching matrix comprising a plurality of absorptive RF switches coupled to each RF module.

16. The network of claim 14, wherein each RF module includes a tone generator configured to inject a diagnostic tone into a downlink signal path of the RF signals received from the respective network device;

wherein the splitter/combiner tray includes at least one respective RF detector configured to detect a corresponding diagnostic tone injected by the respective RF module, the detected diagnostic tone used to determine signal loss due to the splitter/combiner tray.

17. A method of operation of an integration panel, the method comprising:

receiving a radio frequency (RF) signal from at least one network device at each of a plurality of RF modules;

conditioning the received RF signal at each of the respective RF modules for transmission to a host unit of a distributed antenna system;

sampling the conditioned RF signal at each of the respective RF modules;

analyzing the sampled RF signals from each of the RF modules at a control module; and

outputting the results of the RF signal analysis from the control module to a user device located remotely from the integration panel.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein conditioning the received RF signal comprises automatically adjusting signal power of the received RF signal at each of the respective RF modules based on one or more of the received RF signals'"'"' protocol, service provider, or frequency band.

19. The method of claim 17, further comprising providing a master graphical user interface from the control module to the user device, the master graphical user interface configured to provide remote access to both the host unit and the control module.

20. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

receiving signals from the user device via an external network which is not used for communicating RF signals between the network devices and wireless devices in communication with the distributed antenna system; and

routing the received signals to one or more corresponding separate integration panels such that a plurality of integration panels are coupled to the user device via a single integration panel.