Base stations and methods for facilitating dynamic simulcasting and de-simulcasting in a distributed antenna system

• US 9,312,941 B2
• Filed: 05/01/2012
• Issued: 04/12/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 10/14/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: Soriaga, Joseph B., Lott, Christopher Gerard, Sun, Jing, Attar, Rashid Ahmed Akbar
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Hai V
• Application Number:
  US13/461,299
• Publication Number:
  US 20130095871A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,442 Days
• Field of Search: 455/503
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0691 using subgroups of transmit antennas
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/12 Fixed resource partitioning
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/30 Resource management for broadcast services

Abstract

Base stations may include a plurality of antenna ports adapted to communicatively couple to respective remote antenna units. A base station simulcast controller module may be coupled with each antenna port, and may be adapted to transmit downlink transmissions over a plurality of remote antenna units, with two or more of the remote antenna units simulcasting downlink transmissions as a simulcasting group. In response to one or more obtained network traffic parameters, the base station simulcast controller module may modify the simulcasting group to include at least one different remote antenna unit. Methods operational on base station may include transmitting downlink transmissions over a plurality of remote antenna units, where two or more of the remote antenna units form a simulcasting group. The simulcasting group can be modified to include at least one different remote antenna unit in response to one or more obtained network traffic parameters.

Claims

1. A base station, comprising:

a plurality of antenna ports, each antenna port adapted to be communicatively coupled to a respective remote antenna unit;

a plurality of base station sector controllers, each base station sector controller comprising a receive interface communicatively coupled to at least one antenna port of the plurality of antenna ports, and a transmit interface; and

a base station simulcast controller module coupled with each of the plurality of antenna ports and coupled with the transmit interface of each of the plurality of base station sector controllers, the base station simulcast controller module adapted to;

transmit downlink transmissions over a plurality of remote antenna units communicatively coupled to the antenna ports, wherein at least two remote antenna units are employed for simulcasting downlink transmissions as a simulcasting group;

obtain one or more network traffic parameters; and

modify the simulcasting group to include at least one different remote antenna unit for simulcasting downlink transmissions in response to the one or more network traffic parameters.

2. The base station of claim 1, wherein the base station simulcast controller module is adapted to simulcast the downlink transmissions over the at least two remote antenna units by:

enabling electronic splitting of a transmit signal; and

providing the electronically split transmit signal to each of the at least two remote antenna units for simulcasting the transmit signal.

3. The base station of claim 1, wherein the base station simulcast controller module adapted to transmit downlink transmissions over a plurality of remote antenna units communicatively coupled to the antenna ports includes the base station simulcast controller module adapted to:

simulcast downlink transmissions on a first carrier over a first group of two or more remote antenna units employing a sector identity (ID); and

simulcast downlink transmissions on a second carrier over a second group of two or more remote antenna units employing the sector ID, wherein at least one remote antenna unit of the second group differs from the remote antenna units of the first group.

4. The base station of claim 3, wherein the base station simulcast controller module adapted to modify the simulcasting group to include at least one different remote antenna unit for simulcasting downlink transmissions in response to the one or more network traffic parameters includes the base station simulcast controller module being adapted to:

modify the first group, the second group, or both the first group and the second group.

5. The base station of claim 1, wherein the base station simulcast controller module adapted to transmit downlink transmissions over a plurality of remote antenna units communicatively coupled to the antenna ports includes the base station simulcast controller module adapted to:

simulcast downlink transmissions over the plurality of remote antenna units, wherein at least one of the remote antenna units is positioned so that a coverage area associated with the at least one remote antenna unit is not adjacent to a coverage area associated with any of the other remote antenna units of the plurality.

6. The base station of claim 1, wherein the one or more network traffic parameters include at least one of a user traffic pattern across a plurality of geographic regions served by the remote antenna sites, or a network interference topology.

7. The base station of claim 1, wherein the base station simulcast controller module adapted to obtain the one or more network traffic parameters comprises the base station simulcast controller module being adapted to receive a transmission from a base station controller indicating the one or more network traffic parameters.

8. The base station of claim 1, wherein the base station simulcast controller module is further adapted to synchronize downlink transmissions for simulcasting from the plurality of remote antenna sites.

9. The base station of claim 8, wherein the base station simulcast controller module is adapted to synchronize downlink transmissions with a buffer circuit adapted to add delay to a signal before the signal reaches a respective antenna port.

10. The base station of claim 1, wherein the plurality of base station sector controllers are adapted to receive de-simulcasted uplink transmissions independent of whether downlink transmissions are simulcasted or de-simulcasted, wherein the de-simulcasted uplink transmissions are associated with one or more uplink diversity branches of a particular sector identity (ID).

11. A method operational on a base station, comprising:

conveying respective transmit signals from each of a plurality of base station sector controllers to a base station simulcast controller module;

providing the transmit signals from the base station simulcast controller module to a plurality of antenna ports communicatively coupled to respective remote antenna units, wherein at least two remote antenna units are employed for simulcasting downlink transmissions as a simulcasting group; and

receiving at respective base station sector controllers uplink transmissions from the two or more remote antenna units via respective antenna ports without passing the uplink transmissions through the base station simulcast controller module, wherein the uplink transmissions are de-simulcasted and associated with one or more uplink diversity branches of a particular sector identity (ID).

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

enabling electronic splitting of at least one transmit signal at the base station simulcast controller module; and

providing the at least one electronically split transmit signal to each of the at least two remote antenna units for simulcasting the transmit signal.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein transmitting downlink transmissions over a plurality of remote antenna units comprises:

simulcasting downlink transmissions over the plurality of remote antenna units, wherein at least one of the remote antenna units is positioned so that a coverage area associated with the at least one remote antenna unit is not adjacent to a coverage area associated with any of the other remote antenna units of the plurality.

14. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

synchronizing downlink transmissions for simulcasting from the plurality of remote antenna sites.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein synchronizing downlink transmissions for simulcasting from the plurality of remote antenna sites comprises:

adding a delay to a signal prior to the signal reaching a respective antenna port associated with a respective remote antenna unit.

16. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

obtaining one or more network traffic parameters; and

modifying the simulcasting group to include at least one different remote antenna unit for simulcasting downlink transmissions in response to the one or more network traffic parameters.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein providing the transmit signals from the base station simulcast controller module to the plurality of antenna ports communicatively coupled to respective remote antenna units comprises:

simulcasting downlink transmissions on a first carrier over a first group of two or more remote antenna units employing a sector identity (ID); and

simulcasting downlink transmissions on a second carrier over a second group of two or more remote antenna units employing the sector ID, wherein at least one remote antenna unit of the second group differs from the remote antenna units of the first group.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein modifying the simulcasting group to include at least one different remote antenna unit for simulcasting downlink transmissions in response to the one or more network traffic parameters comprises:

modifying which remote antenna units are included in the first group, the second group, or both the first group and the second group.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein obtaining the one or more network traffic parameters comprises:

receiving a transmission from a base station controller indicating the one or more network traffic parameters.

20. A base station apparatus, comprising:

means for conveying respective transmit signals from each of a plurality of base station sector controllers to a base station simulcast controller module;

means for providing the transmit signals from the base station simulcast controller module to a plurality of antenna ports communicatively coupled to respective remote antenna units, wherein at least two remote antenna units are employed for simulcasting downlink transmissions as a simulcasting group; and

means for receiving uplink transmissions at respective base station sector controllers from the two or more remote antenna units employed for simulcasting downlink transmissions via respective antenna ports without passing the uplink transmissions through the base station simulcast controller module, wherein the uplink transmissions are de-simulcasted and associated with one or more uplink diversity branches of a particular sector identity (ID).

21. The base station apparatus of claim 20, further comprising:

means for simulcasting downlink transmissions on a first carrier over a first group of two or more remote antenna units employing a sector identity (ID); and

means for simulcasting downlink transmissions on a second carrier over a second group of two or more remote antenna units employing the sector ID, wherein at least one remote antenna unit of the second group differs from the remote antenna units of the first group.

22. The base station apparatus of claim 20, further comprising:

means for simulcasting downlink transmissions over the plurality of remote antenna units, wherein at least one of the remote antenna units is positioned so that a coverage area associated with the at least one remote antenna unit is not adjacent to a coverage area associated with any of the other remote antenna units of the plurality.

23. The base station apparatus of claim 20, further comprising:

means for synchronizing downlink transmissions for simulcasting from the plurality of remote antenna sites.

24. The base station apparatus of claim 20, further comprising:

means for obtaining one or more network traffic parameters; and

means for modifying the simulcasting group to include at least one different remote antenna unit for simulcasting downlink transmissions in response to the one or more network traffic parameters.

25. A non-transitory machine-readable medium comprising instructions operational on a base station, which when executed by a processor causes the processor to:

convey respective transmit signals from each of a plurality of base station sector controllers to a base station simulcast controller module;

provide the transmit signals from the base station simulcast controller module to a plurality of antenna ports communicatively coupled to respective remote antenna units, wherein at least two remote antenna units are employed for simulcasting downlink transmissions as a simulcasting group; and

receive uplink transmissions at respective base station sector controllers from the two or more remote antenna units via respective antenna ports without passing the uplink transmissions through the base station simulcast controller module, wherein the uplink transmissions are de-simulcasted and associated with one or more uplink diversity branches of a particular sector identity (ID).

26. The machine-readable medium of claim 25, further comprising instructions operational on a base station to cause the processor to:

synchronize downlink transmissions for simulcasting from the plurality of remote antenna sites.

27. The machine-readable medium of claim 25, further comprising instructions operational on a base station to cause the processor to:

obtain one or more network traffic parameters; and

modify the simulcasting group to include at least one different remote antenna unit for simulcasting downlink transmissions in response to the one or more network traffic parameters.