Spectrum allocation for base station

• US 9,918,313 B2
• Filed: 12/31/2014
• Issued: 03/13/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 05/04/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Tan, Kun, Zhang, Jiansong, Zhang, Yongguang, Chandra, Ranveer, He, Yong, Moscibroda, Thomas, Bahl, Paramvir, Shen, Haichen
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Phuongchau Ba
• Application Number:
  US14/587,512
• Publication Number:
  US 20150117386A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,168 Days
• Field of Search: 370210, 370329, 370343, 370312, 370314, 370345, 370478
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 27/0006 Assessment of spectral gaps suitable for allocating digitally modulated signals, e.g. for carrier allocation in cognitive radio for spectrum sharing between different networks H04W16/14
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0005 Time-frequency
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0023 Time-frequency-space
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0064 Rate requirement of the data, e.g. scalable bandwidth, data priority
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0066 Requirements on out-of-channel emissions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0092 Indication of how the channel is divided
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/14 Two-way operation using the same type of signal, i.e. duplex
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/14 Spectrum sharing arrangements between different networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/0446 Resources in time domain, e.g. slots or frames
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/0453 Resources in frequency domain, e.g. a carrier in FDMA
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/541 using the level of interference
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/08 Access point devices

Abstract

Embodiments include processes, systems, and devices that allow a white space base station to request available frequency ranges for white space transmission in a local area. A white space finder service models a primary user device'"'"'s transmission signal propagation area using terrain data associated with the local area of the primary user device. The white space finder service also determines, based on the location of the white space base station and the modeled propagation area, one or more locally available, non-interfering frequency ranges and provides them to the white space base station. The white space base station compares the provided frequency ranges to policies and selects one or more of the available frequencies that accommodate the policies. The white space base station also maps the transmission frequency ranges to virtual frequency ranges for transmission by a software-defined radio employing spectrum virtualization.

Claims

1. A method of spectrum virtualization, the method comprising:

providing a virtual clock to a physical layer associated with a first transmission spectrum, the virtual clock rate based at least on a first width of the first transmission spectrum and on a second width of a second transmission spectrum;

receiving, from the physical layer of a base station and at a spectrum virtualization module of the base station, a virtual baseband signal modulated by the physical layer at the first transmission spectrum;

converting, at the spectrum virtualization module, the virtual baseband signal to a first physical baseband signal in a whitespace transmission band of the second transmission spectrum and according to a spectrum map, the spectrum map associating white space frequency bands available in a geographic area of the base station with one or more virtual frequency bands;

providing, at the spectrum virtualization module and to a radio transceiver of the base station, the first physical baseband signal;

converting, at the spectrum virtualization module, a second physical baseband signal from the radio transceiver to a second virtual baseband signal at the first transmission spectrum; and

providing the second virtual baseband signal to the physical layer;

transmitting, by the radio transceiver, the first physical baseband signal to a receiver.

2. The method that claim 1 recites, wherein the first transmission spectrum is a contiguous first transmission spectrum, and the second transmission spectrum includes a plurality of discontiguous portions, wherein the converting the virtual baseband signal to a first physical baseband signal includes translating a first portion of the contiguous first transmission spectrum to a first one of the plurality of discontiguous portions of the second transmission spectrum, and translating a second portion of the contiguous first transmission spectrum to a second one of the plurality of discontiguous portions of the second transmission spectrum.

3. The method that claim 1 recites, wherein the converting the virtual baseband signal to a first physical baseband signal includes translating, based on the spectrum map, the virtual baseband signals to at least one of a narrower contiguous physical band or a plurality of non-contiguous physical bands of the second transmission spectrum.

4. The method that claim 1 recites, further comprising, adding together two or more physical baseband signals of the corresponding physical baseband signals to form a single physical baseband signal;

and

transmitting the single physical baseband signal to the receiver.

5. A system comprising:

a processing unit;

radio hardware;

a computer-readable medium operatively coupled to the processing unit and having a plurality of modules stored thereon, the plurality of modules executable by the processing unit to perform acts comprising;

providing a virtual clock to a physical layer associated with a first transmission spectrum, the virtual clock rate based at least on a first width of the first transmission spectrum and on a second width of a second transmission spectrum;

receiving, from the physical layer of a base station, a virtual baseband signal modulated by the physical layer at the first transmission spectrum;

converting the virtual baseband signal to a first physical baseband signal in a whitespace transmission band of the second transmission spectrum and according to a spectrum map, the spectrum map associating white space frequency bands available in a geographic area of the base station with one or more virtual frequency bands;

providing, to a radio transceiver of the base station, the first physical baseband signal;

converting a second physical baseband signal from the radio transceiver to a second virtual baseband signal at the first transmission spectrum; and

providing the second virtual baseband signal to the physical layer;

the radio hardware configured to;

convert the first physical baseband signal to an analog signal; and

transmit the analog signal via one or more antennae.

6. The system that claim 5 recites, wherein the acts comprise, based on the at least one physical layer protocol, modulating the data on a particular virtual baseband according to a virtual frequency range of a wireless transmission protocol.

7. The system as claim 6 recites, wherein one or more physical basebands are narrower than the particular virtual baseband.

8. The system as claim 6 recites, wherein the one or more physical basebands are broader that the particular virtual baseband.

9. The system as claim 5 recites, wherein the acts further comprise:

monitoring current usage of a plurality of physical basebands;

allocating available ones of the plurality of physical basebands for mapping the virtual baseband signal; and

updating the spectrum map to reflect an allocation of the available ones of the plurality of physical basebands.

10. The system as claim 5 recites, wherein the acts further comprise:

further translating at least two virtual baseband signals to create at least two physical baseband signals; and

combining the at least two physical baseband signals.

11. The system as claim 10 recites, wherein the acts further comprise combining the at least two physical baseband signals by scaling signal amplitudes associated with individual ones of the at least two physical baseband signals based at least in part on individual physical protocol masks.

12. The system as claim 5 recites, wherein the acts further comprise:

receiving a request to register the at least one physical layer protocol, the request including at least a virtual spectrum band and an associated bandwidth;

assigning a physical protocol identifier to the at least one physical layer protocol; and

updating the spectrum map to include the at least one physical layer protocol.

13. The system as claim 5 recites, wherein the one or more physical basebands comprise one of a plurality of dynamically allotted frequency bands that include at least a white space network, or a dynamic spectrum access (DSA) network.

14. A system, comprising:

radio frequency (RF) hardware configured to

provide a first physical baseband signal in a white space transmission band to a communication module;

a processing unit; and

a computer-readable medium operatively coupled to the processing unit and having the plurality of modules thereon, the plurality of modules including the communication module;

the communication module configured to, upon execution by the processing unit;

provide a virtual clock to a physical layer associated with a first transmission spectrum, the virtual clock rate based at least on a first width of the first transmission spectrum and on a second width of a second transmission spectrum;

receive, from the physical layer of the system, a virtual baseband signal modulated by the physical layer at the first transmission spectrum;

convert the virtual baseband signal to a second physical baseband signal in the whitespace transmission band of the second transmission spectrum and according to a spectrum map, the spectrum map associating white space frequency bands available in a geographic area of the base station with one or more virtual frequency bands;

provide, to the radio hardware the second physical baseband signal;

convert the first physical baseband signal from the radio hardware to a second virtual baseband signal at the first transmission spectrum;

providing the second virtual baseband signal to the physical layer and demodulate the second baseband signal to extract underlying binary data.

15. The system as claim 14 recites, wherein the communication module is further configured to, upon execution by the processing unit:

map the first virtual baseband signal to a plurality of non-contiguous physical bands of the one or more physical basebands.

16. The system as claim 14 recites, wherein the communication module is further configured to, upon execution by the processing unit:

provide the first physical baseband signal received from the RF hardware through one or more splitters to create a plurality of filtered physical baseband signals, wherein individual splitters of the one or more splitters include a filter that corresponds to an individual physical layer protocol of one or more physical layer protocols; and

translating the plurality of filtered physical baseband signals.

17. The system as claim 14 recites, wherein the communication module is further configured to, upon execution by the processing unit:

monitor current usage of a plurality of physical spectrum bands;

allocate available ones of the plurality of physical spectrum bands for mapping the particular virtual baseband signal based at least in part on predetermined policies; and

update the spectrum map to reflect an allocation of the available ones of the plurality of physical spectrum bands.