Base station router for distributed antenna systems

• US 9,735,843 B2
• Filed: 07/18/2016
• Issued: 08/15/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 07/11/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Outdoor Wireless Networks LLC (CommScope Holding Company, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: CommScope Technologies, LLC (CommScope Holding Company, Inc.)
• Inventors: Kummetz, Thomas, Eisenwinter, Stefan, Kurk, Morgan C., Melester, Matthew Thomas
• Primary Examiner(s): Appiah, Charles
• Assistant Examiner(s): HOLLIDAY, JAIME MICHELE
• Application Number:
  US15/213,161
• Publication Number:
  US 20160329933A1
• Time in Patent Office: 393 Days
• Field of Search: 455446-448
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 17/318 Received signal strength
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/022 Site diversity; Macro-diversity using two or more spaced independent antennas H04B7/04
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/2606 Arrangements for base station coverage control, e.g. by using relays in tunnels
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/40 Constructional details, e.g. power supply, mechanical construction or backplane
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/04 Traffic adaptive resource partitioning
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/06 Hybrid resource partitioning, e.g. channel borrowing
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/24 Cell structures
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/26 Cell enhancers or enhancement, e.g. for tunnels, building shadow
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/04 Wireless resource allocation
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/085 Access point devices with remote components

Abstract

Certain aspects are directed to a base station router disposed in a distributed antenna system. The base station router includes a backplane and a controller. The backplane can manage an availability of sectors for coverage zones. Each sector can include communication channels to be radiated to mobile devices in the coverage zones and can represent an amount of telecommunication capacity. The controller can respond to a traffic indicator by causing the backplane to redistribute the availability of at least one sector. The sector can be redistributed from a first coverage zone to a second coverage zone.

Claims

1. A base station router configured to be disposed in a distributed antenna system, the base station router comprising:

a first interface device configured to receive sectors from a base station, each sector comprising a plurality of communication channels to be radiated to mobile devices in coverage zones managed by the base station router and representing an amount of telecommunication capacity for communicating information between the mobile devices and the base station;

digital signal processing circuitry configured to manage an availability of the sectors for the coverage zones;

a second interface device configured to communicate with an another device configured to manage an additional availability of additional sectors for additional coverage zones; and

a controller configured to;

redistribute the availability of at least one sector from a first coverage zone of the coverage zones managed by the base station router to a second coverage zone of the coverage zones managed by the base station router; and

redistribute, via the second interface device, the availability of at least one additional sector from the received sectors between at least one of the coverage zones managed by the base station router and at least one of the additional coverage zones managed by the another device, wherein redistributing the availability of the at least one additional sector decreases a capacity density of at least one coverage zone managed by the base station router and increases a capacity density of at least one additional coverage zone managed by the another device.

2. The base station router of claim 1, wherein each communication channel corresponds to a signal configured to carry data.

3. The base station router of claim 1, wherein the plurality of communication channels comprises a plurality of RF channels.

4. The base station router of claim 1, wherein the plurality of communication channels comprises a plurality of digital signals, wherein each digital signal represents an RF channel.

5. The base station router of claim 1, wherein redistributing the availability of the at least one sector comprises increasing the number of communication channels provided to a first remote antenna unit in the first coverage zone and decreasing the number of communication channels provided to a second remote antenna unit in the second coverage zone.

6. The base station router of claim 1, wherein the controller is further configured to:

execute a scheduling algorithm outputting a traffic indicator; and

redistribute the availability of the at least one sector from the first coverage zone to the second coverage zone in response to the traffic indicator;

wherein the traffic indicator comprises a schedule indicator stored in a tangible memory device.

7. The base station router of claim 1, wherein the controller is further configured to:

identify a spectrum of signals in the first coverage zone and the second coverage zone;

determine a traffic indicator based on the spectrum of signals; and

redistribute the availability of the at least one sector from the first coverage zone to the second coverage zone in response to the traffic indicator;

wherein the traffic indicator comprises a quantity of mobile devices in each coverage zone.

8. The base station router of claim 1, further comprising:

an interface module configured to transform signals associated with a plurality of sectors into digital data streams;

wherein the digital signal processing circuitry is further configured to;

combine a first subset of the digital data streams associated with a first sector into a first combined digital data stream;

combine a second subset of the digital data streams associated with a second sector into a second combined digital data stream; and

provide the first combined digital data stream and the second combined digital data stream to a first zone interface card configured to communicate with a first remote antenna unit in the first coverage zone and a second zone interface card configured to communicate with a second remote antenna unit in the second coverage zone.

9. A distributed antenna system, comprising:

a first remote antenna unit configured to wirelessly communicate with mobile devices located in a first coverage zone;

a second remote antenna unit configured to wirelessly communicate with mobile devices located in a second coverage zone;

a base station router configured to;

receive a sector from a base station; and

distribute an availability of the sector to the first remote antenna unit and the second remote antenna unit, the sector comprising a plurality of communication channels and representing an amount of telecommunication capacity; and

an another device configured to manage an availability of additional sectors for additional coverage zones,

wherein the base station router is further configured to redistribute the availability of at least one additional sector between at least one of;

(1) the first coverage zone and the second coverage zone managed by the base station router; and

(2) at least one of the additional coverage zones managed by the another device, wherein redistributing the availability of the at least one additional sector decreases a capacity density of at least one of the first coverage zone and the second coverage zone managed by the base station router and increases a capacity density of at least one additional coverage zone managed by the another device.

10. The distributed antenna system of claim 9, wherein each communication channel corresponds to a signal configured to carry data.

11. The distributed antenna system of claim 9, wherein the plurality of communication channels comprises a plurality of RF channels.

12. The distributed antenna system of claim 9, wherein the plurality of communication channels comprises a plurality of digital signals, wherein each digital signal represents an RF channel.

13. The distributed antenna system of claim 9, wherein redistributing the availability of at least one sector comprises increasing the number of communication channels provided to the first remote antenna unit and decreasing the number of communication channels provided to the second remote antenna unit.

14. The distributed antenna system of claim 9, wherein the base station router is further configured to:

execute a scheduling algorithm outputting a traffic indicator; and

redistribute the availability of an additional sector from the first coverage zone to the second coverage zone in response to a traffic indicator, wherein the traffic indicator comprises a schedule indicator stored in a tangible memory device.

15. The distributed antenna system of claim 9, wherein the base station router is further configured to:

identify a spectrum of signals in the first coverage zone and the second coverage zone;

determine a traffic indicator based on the spectrum of signals; and

redistribute the availability of the at least one sector from the first coverage zone to the second coverage zone in response to a traffic indicator, wherein the traffic indicator comprises a quantity of mobile devices in each coverage zone.

16. The distributed antenna system of claim 9, further comprising:

a plurality of remote antenna units in the first coverage zone; and

a detection device configured to;

communicate with a remote antenna unit; and

detect a received signal strength indicator associated with an uplink signal transmitted by an identified mobile device;

wherein the base station router comprises a zone interface card configured to communicate with the detection device via a reference receiver input and is configured to determine a geographic location of the identified mobile device based on the respective signal strength of the received signal strength indicator.

17. A method, comprising:

distributing, by a base station router, an availability of a sector received from a base station to a first coverage zone, the sector comprising a plurality of communication channels and representing an amount of telecommunication capacity;

redistributing, by the base station router, the availability of the sector from the first coverage zone to a second coverage zone; and

redistributing, by the base station router, an additional availability of at least one additional sector received from the base station between at least one of the coverage zones managed by the base station router and at least one additional coverage zone managed by an another device, wherein redistributing the availability of the at least one additional sector decreases a capacity density of at least one coverage zone managed by the base station router and increases a capacity density of the at least one additional coverage zone managed by the another device.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein redistributing the availability of at least one sector comprises:

increasing the number of communication channels provided to a first remote antenna unit in the first coverage zone; and

decreasing the number of communication channels provided to a second remote antenna unit in the second coverage zone.

19. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

detecting a traffic indicator by executing a scheduling algorithm outputting the traffic indicator; and

redistributing the availability of the sector from the first coverage zone to the second coverage zone in response to detecting the traffic indicator, wherein the traffic indicator comprises a schedule indicator stored in a tangible memory device.

20. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

redistributing the availability of the sector from the first coverage zone to the second coverage zone in response to detecting a traffic indicator, wherein detecting the traffic indicator comprises;

identifying a spectrum of signals in the first coverage zone and the second coverage zone; and

determining the traffic indicator based on the spectrum of signals, wherein the traffic indicator comprises a quantity of mobile devices in each coverage zone.