Multi-board architecture for wireless transceiver station

• US 9,456,353 B2
• Filed: 07/15/2014
• Issued: 09/27/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 07/15/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent SA (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent SA (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Wang, Jerry Z., Farag, Emad, Miller, Susan M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Huq, Obaidul
• Application Number:
  US14/331,952
• Publication Number:
  US 20160021547A1
• Time in Patent Office: 805 Days
• Field of Search: 370/229, 370/230, 370/235, 370/310, 370/328, 370/338, 370/351, 370/428, 370/464, 370/465, 370/473, 370/474, 455/403, 455/422.1, 455/446, 455/448, 455/449
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/26 Cell enhancers or enhancement, e.g. for tunnels, building shadow
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/0835 Access entity, e.g. eNB
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/04 Wireless resource allocation
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/20 Control channels or signalling for resource management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/08 Access point devices

Abstract

A transceiver station provides wireless resources including communication features for users in a geographical coverage area including a plurality of cells, each of the plurality of cells being associated with a different combination of at least one carrier and at least one sector of the geographical coverage area. The transceiver station includes a first board and a second board. The first board includes a first L1 processing circuit configured to perform functions associated with providing a first set of the communication features for the users in a first subset of cells from among the plurality of cells. The second board communicatively is coupled with the first board, and includes a second L1 processing circuit configured to perform functions associated with providing a second set of the communication features for the users in a second subset of cells from among the plurality of cells.

Claims

1. A transceiver station providing wireless resources including communication features for users in a geographical coverage area, the geographical coverage area including a plurality of cells, and each of the plurality of cells being associated with a different combination of at least one carrier and at least one sector of the geographical coverage area, the transceiver station comprising:

a first board including a first L1 processing circuit configured to perform functions associated with providing a first set of the communication features for the users in a first subset of cells from among the plurality of cells; and

a second board communicatively coupled with the first board, the second board including a second L1 processing circuit configured to perform functions associated with providing a second set of the communication features for the users in a second subset of cells from among the plurality of cells, the first set of the communication features being different from the second set of the communication features;

wherein the functions associated with providing the first set of the communication features for the users in the first subset of cells from among the plurality of cells include

processing a received uplink control channel to obtain uplink control channel information for uplink transmissions by a first of the users in the first subset of cells,

processing, based on the obtained uplink control channel information, a received first uplink data channel to recover first data bit sequences transmitted by the first user in the first subset of cells, and

outputting the obtained uplink control channel information and recovered first data bit sequences to a central office for further processing.

2. The transceiver station of claim 1, wherein the first L1 processing circuit is further configured to perform functions associated with providing only the first set of the communication features.

3. The transceiver station of claim 2, wherein the second L1 processing circuit is further configured to perform functions associated with providing only the second set of the communication features.

4. The transceiver station of claim 1, wherein:

the first set of the communication features includes less than all of the communication features provided by the transceiver station; and

the second set of the communication features includes less than all of the communication features provided by the transceiver station.

5. The transceiver station of claim 1, wherein each communication feature in the first set of the communication features is different from each communication feature in the second set of the communication features.

6. The transceiver station of claim 1, wherein only a portion of the communication features in the first and second sets of the communication features are the same.

7. The transceiver station of claim 1, wherein:

the first L1 processing circuit is further configured to obtain control information based on a radio-frequency signal stream received on at least a first carrier in the first subset of cells, and to output the obtained control information to the second L1 processing circuit; and

the second L1 processing circuit is further configured to perform the functions associated with providing the second set of the communication features for the users in the second subset of cells based on the control information from the first L1 processing circuit.

8. The transceiver station of claim 7, wherein the first L1 processing circuit is further configured to output the obtained control information to the second L1 processing circuit via an L1 interface message.

9. The transceiver station of claim 1, wherein:

the first L1 processing circuit is further configured to output the obtained uplink control channel information to the second L1 processing circuit; and

the functions associated with providing the second set of the communication features for the users in the second subset of cells from among the plurality of cells include,

processing, based on the uplink control channel information from the first L1 processing circuit, a received second uplink data channel to recover second data bit sequences transmitted by the first user in the second subset of cells, and

outputting the recovered second data bit sequences to a central office for further processing.

10. The transceiver station of claim 1, wherein the functions associated with providing the first set of the communication features for the users in the first subset of cells from among the plurality of cells include:

encoding a received downlink data set to generate a radio-frequency signal stream for transmission to the first of the users on at least a first carrier in the first subset of cells; and

outputting the generated radio-frequency signal stream for transmission to the first user.

11. The transceiver station of claim 1, wherein:

the first board is configured to identify a capacity overload for at least one communication feature in the first set of communication features for the users; and

transfer, from the first board to the second board, functions associated with providing the at least one communication feature to at least one of the users if the first board identifies the capacity overload for the at least one communication feature at the first board.

12. The transceiver station of claim 11, wherein the second board is configured to perform the transferred functions to provide the at least one communication feature to the at least one of the users.

13. A method for providing wireless resources including communication features for users in a geographical coverage area, the geographical coverage area including a plurality of cells, and each of the plurality of cells being associated with a different combination of at least one carrier and at least one sector of the geographical coverage area, the method comprising:

first performing functions associated with providing a first set of the communication features for the users in a first subset of cells from among the plurality of cells; and

second performing functions associated with providing a second set of the communication features for the users in a second subset of cells from among the plurality of cells, the first set of the communication features being different from the second set of the communication features;

wherein the first performing step includes

processing a received uplink control channel to obtain uplink control channel information for uplink transmissions by a first of the users in the first subset of cells,

processing, based on the obtained uplink control channel information, a received first uplink data channel to recover first data bit sequences transmitted by the first user in the first subset of cells, and

outputting the obtained uplink control channel information and recovered first data bit sequences to a central office for further processing.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein:

the first performing step performs functions associated with providing only the first set of the communication features for the users; and

the second performing step performs functions associated with providing only the second set of the communication features for the users.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein only a portion of the communication features in the first and second sets of the communication features are the same.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein:

the first performing step includes,

obtaining, at a first L1 processing circuit, control information based on a radio-frequency signal stream received on at least a first carrier in the first subset of cells, and

outputting the obtained control information from the first L1 processing circuit to a second L1 processing circuit; and

the second performing step performs, at the second L1 processing circuit, the functions associated with providing the second set of the communication features for the users in the second subset of cells based on the control information from the first L1 processing circuit.

17. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

outputting the obtained uplink control channel information from a first L1 processing circuit to a second L1 processing circuit; and

wherein the second performing step includes,

processing, based on the uplink control channel information from the first L1 processing circuit, a received second uplink data channel to recover second data bit sequences transmitted by the first user in the second subset of cells, and

outputting the recovered second data bit sequences to a central office for further processing.

18. The method of claim 13, wherein the first performing step comprises:

encoding a received downlink data set to generate a radio-frequency signal stream for transmission to the first of the users on at least a first carrier in the first subset of cells; and

outputting the generated radio-frequency signal stream for transmission to the first user.