METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR IMPROVING UPLINK PERFORMANCE

• US 20080200117A1
• Filed: 02/19/2008
• Published: 08/21/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 02/19/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Corning Optical Communications LLC (Corning Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Corning Optical Communications Wireless Ltd. (Corning Incorporated)
• Inventors: Oren, Yair, Saban, Ofer
• Granted Patent: US 9,312,938 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/7
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/1027 assessing signal quality or detecting noise/interference for the received signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/109 by improving strong signal performance of the receiver when strong unwanted signals are present at the receiver input
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 15/00 Suppression or limitation of noise or interference by means associated with receiver H04B1/10
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/024 Co-operative use of antennas of several sites, e.g. in co-ordinated multipoint or co-operative multiple-input multiple-output [MIMO] systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0491 using two or more sectors, i.e. sector diversity
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0874 using subgroups of receive antennas
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/06 using space diversity

Abstract

The present invention is directed to improvements for distributed antenna systems and more particularly to methods and systems for improving uplink communications. In one embodiment, Aggregation Point Noise Blocking provides for blocking or filtering the noise contributed by one or more of the branches coupled to an aggregation point that are not carrying the signal from a particular terminal. Signal activity from a given terminal on a particular branch can be identified and that information can be used to selectively block or filter the signal noise contributed by the other branches to an aggregation point. The selective blocking or filtering can also include an attenuation function to attenuate the signal and provide dynamic range smoothing. In another embodiment the signal can be regenerated to produce a signal that has a restored or very high SNR. An uplink regeneration block can be provided which demodulates the uplink signal to recover the transmitted information and then re-modulates the transmitted information to regenerate a signal at a restored or very high SNR.

Claims

1. A distributed antenna system comprising

at least one signal regeneration component, the signal regeneration component including a demodulation block adapted to demodulate an input signal and extract information carried by the input signal;

and

re-modulation block adapted to receive the extracted information and to re-generate a signal for transmission through the distributed antenna system.

2. A distributed antenna system according to claim 1 wherein the re-modulation block generates a signal having a greater signal to noise ratio than the input signal.

3. A distributed antenna system according to claim 1 wherein the re-modulation block produces the generated signal at a power level optimized for transmission through the distributed antenna system.

4. A distributed antenna system according to claim 1 further comprising

at least one aggregation point and at least two uplink branches connected to the aggregation point, and the signal regeneration component is disposed upstream from the aggregation point.

5. A distributed antenna system according to claim 1 further comprising

at least one aggregation point and at least two uplink branches connected to the aggregation point, and

at least one signal regeneration component disposed in at least one uplink branch, downstream of the aggregation point.

6. A method of transmitting a signal through a distributed antenna system comprising:

Demodulating a received signal to extract information carried by the received signal; and

re-modulating the extracted information to generate a signal adapted for transmission through the distributed antenna system.

7. A method according to claim 6 wherein the generated signal has greater signal to noise ratio than the received signal.

8. A method according to claim 6 wherein the generated signal is produced at a power level that is optimized for transmission through the distributed antenna system.