Wireless network system and method

• US 8,200,212 B2
• Filed: 10/31/2007
• Issued: 06/12/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 10/01/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intellectual Ventures Assets 197 LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC), TP-Link USA Corporation (TP-Link Technologies Co Limited)
• Original Assignee: Intellectual Ventures Fund 43 LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Inventors: Rappaport, Theodore S., Heath, Robert W.
• Primary Examiner(s): Lee, John J
• Application Number:
  US11/932,123
• Publication Number:
  US 20090046638A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,686 Days
• Field of Search: 455/560, 455/561, 455/515, 455/554.2, 455/422.1, 455/446, 455/425, 455/434, 455/562.1, 455/507, 455/426.2, 455/500, 370/401
• US Class Current: 455/426.2
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0413 MIMO systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0617 for beam forming
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0669 using different channel coding between antennas space-time coding H04L1/0618
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/068 using space frequency diversity space-frequency coding H04L1/0606
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/10 Polarisation diversity; Directional diversity
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/10 Small scale networks; Flat hierarchical networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/12 Access point controller devices

Abstract

Embodiments of the present invention provide a flexible system for providing wireless broadband access. The system can include a gateway that has a plurality of gateway premises equipment (“GPE”) units and a network fuser connected to the plurality of GPE units to coordinate the activities of the plurality of the GPE units. The network fuser can provide DSP configuration information and RF configuration information to the GPE units. The network fuser is also operable to connect to a high-speed network (e.g., a backhaul network) and to provision data from the high-speed network to each of the plurality of GPE units. The system can also include a plurality of customer premises equipment (“CPE”) units remote from the gateway.

Claims

1. A system of wireless communication comprising:

a network fuser connected to a control data transport medium;

a first gateway/customer premises equipment (GPE/CPE) unit connected to the network fuser via the control data transport medium; and

wherein the network fuser is operable to;

receive data from a network;

generate radio frequency (“

RF”

) configuration information for the first GPE/CPE unit;

generate digital signal processing (“

DSP”

) configuration information for the first GPE/CPE unit;

provide the radio frequency (“

RF”

) configuration and the digital signal processing (“

DSP”

) configuration information to the first GPE/CPE unit.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein providing DSP configuration information further comprises indicating a space-time algorithm to be applied by the first GPE/CPE unit.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein providing DSP configuration information further comprises indicating a coding to be applied by the first GPE/CPE unit.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein providing DSP configuration information further comprises indicating a modulation to be applied by the first GPE/CPE unit.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the GPE/CPE unit further comprises:

a plurality of antennas;

one or more sets of RF circuitry; and

an RF backplane operable to connect the plurality of antennas to the one or more sets of RF circuitry in a variety of configurations.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the RF backplane is connected to the control data transport medium.

7. The system of claim 5, wherein the network fuser is operable to configure the RF backplane.

8. The system of claim 1, further comprising a second GPE/CPE unit remote from the first GPE/CPE unit, operable to establish a wireless communications link with the first GPE/CPE unit.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the wireless communications link is a MIMO communications link.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the network fuser is operable to configure the first GPE/CPE unit to establish the MIMO communications link.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the network fuser is further operable to instruct the first GPE/CPE unit to probe a channel.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the network fuser is further operable to provision bandwidth to a communication link established between the first GPE/CPE unit and a second GPE/CPE unit.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the network fuser is further operable to provide access controls.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the first GPE/CPE unit further comprises one or more adaptive antennas and wherein the network fuser is further operable to configure the first GPE/CPE unit to adjust the one or more adaptive antennas.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the network fuser can configure the first GPE/CPE unit to adjust beam patterns.

16. The system of claim 1, further comprising a second GPE/CPE unit connected to the network fuser via the control data transport medium.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the network fuser is operable to receive data from the network and provision the data to the first and second GPE/CPE units for communication to one or more remote GPE/CPE units via a wireless communication link.

18. A system of wireless communication comprising:

a network fuser connected to a control data transport medium;

a first gateway/customer premises equipment (GPE/CPE) unit connected to the network fuser via the control data transport medium; and

a second GPE/CPE unit remote from the first GPE/CPE unit, operable to establish a wireless communications link with the first GPE/CPE unit;

wherein the network fuser is operable to;

receive data from a network;

provide radio frequency (“

RF”

) configuration information to the first GPE/CPE unit; and

provide digital signal processing (“

DSP”

) configuration information to the first GPE/CPE unit;

wherein the network fuser is operable to configure the first GPE/CPE unit to establish the MIMO communications link;

wherein the network fuser is operable to configure the first GPE/CPE unit based on instantaneous channel data received from the first GPE/CPE unit.

19. A system of wireless communication comprising:

a network fuser connected to a control data transport medium;

a first gateway/customer premises equipment (GPE/CPE) unit connected to the network fuser via the control data transport medium; and

a second GPE/CPE unit remote from the first GPE/CPE unit, operable to establish a wireless communications link with the first GPE/CPE unit;

wherein the network fuser is operable to;

receive data from a network;

provide radio frequency (“

RF”

) configuration information to the first GPE/CPE unit; and

provide digital signal processing (“

DSP”

) configuration information to the first GPE/CPE unit;

wherein the network fuser is operable to configure the first GPE/CPE unit to establish the MIMO communications link;

wherein the network fuser is operable to configure the first GPE/CPE unit based on instantaneous channel data derived by the second GPE/CPE unit.

20. A system for provisioning broad-band fixed wireless access comprising:

a gateway, further comprising;

a plurality of gateway premises equipment (“

GPE”

) units;

a network fuser connected to the plurality of GPE units and is operable to coordinate and schedule the activities of the plurality of the GPE units to act as a base station, wherein the network fuser is operable to connect to a high-speed network and to provision data from the high-speed network to each of the plurality of GPE units;

a plurality of customer premises equipment (“

CPE”

) units remote from the gateway;

wherein each GPE unit is operable to establish a wireless MIMO communications link with at least one corresponding CPE unit to wirelessly transfer data received from the network fuser.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein the gateway further comprises at least one new GPE to be added to the gateway, wherein the network fuser is operable to recognize the additional GPE and re-provision bandwidth based on the addition of the new GPE.

22. The system of claim 20, wherein the network fuser is located within one of the GPE units.

23. The system of claim 20, wherein the high-speed data network is a backhaul network.

24. The system of claim 23, wherein the network fuser is further operable to instruct a CPE unit from the plurality of CPE units to probe a channel.

25. The system of claim 24, wherein the CPE unit from the plurality of CPE units is operable to:

probe the channel;

return channel measurements to the network fuser.

26. The system of claim 20, wherein each of the plurality of GPE units is operable to probe a channel.

27. The system of claim 26, wherein each of the plurality of GPE units is operable to probe the channel according to training sequences.

28. The system of claim 26, wherein each of the plurality of GPE units is operable to probe the channel using pilot tones.

29. The system of claim 26, wherein each of the plurality of GPE units is operable to probe the channel off-line.

30. The system of claim 26, wherein each of the plurality of GPE units is operable to probe the channel on-line.

31. The system of claim 26, wherein each CPE unit is operable to probe a channel according to training sequences.

32. The system of claim 26, wherein each CPE unit is operable to probe using pilot tones.

33. The system of claim 26, wherein each CPE unit is operable to probe the channel off-line.

34. The system of claim 26, wherein each CPE unit is operable to probe the channel online.

35. The system of claim 20, wherein each CPE unit is operable to probe a channel.

36. The system of claim 20, wherein the network fuser is further operable to instruct a GPE unit from the plurality of GPE units to probe a channel.

37. The system of claim 36, wherein the GPE unit from the plurality of GPE units is operable to:

probe the channel;

return channel measurements to the network fuser.

38. The system of claim 20, wherein the network fuser is operable to instruct the plurality of GPE units and CPE units to perform channel probes.

39. The system of claim 20, wherein each of the plurality of GPE units and each of the plurality of CPE units comprises one or more RAD units.

40. The system of claim 20, wherein the network fuser is further operable to adjust adaptive antennas in each of the plurality of GPE units.

41. The system of claim 40, wherein the network fuser is operable to allocate physical layer resources to the plurality of GPE units.

42. The system of claim 20, wherein the network fuser is operable to:

analyze packets received over the high-speed network;

configure the plurality of GPE units to wirelessly communicate data from the packets to the plurality of CPE units.

43. The system of claim 20, wherein the network fuser is operable to provision bandwidth based on usage.

44. The system of claim 20, wherein the network fuser is operable to provision bandwidth based on quality of service.

45. The system of claim 20, wherein the network fuser is operable to provision band width based on service provider requirements.

46. The system of claim 20, wherein each of the plurality of CPE units and each of the plurality of GPE units have the same architecture.

47. The system of claim 20, wherein the wireless MIMO communications link employs TDMA, CDMA, FDMA, OFDMA, or SDMA as an access technique.

48. A system for provisioning broad-band fixed wireless access comprising:

a gateway, further comprising;

a plurality of gateway premises equipment (“

GPE”

) units;

a network fuser connected to the plurality of GPE units to coordinate the activities of the plurality of the GPE units to act as a base station, wherein the network fuser is operable to connect to a high-speed network and to provision data from the high-speed network to each of the plurality of GPE units; and

a plurality of customer premises equipment (“

CPE”

) units remote from the gateway;

wherein each GPE unit is operable to establish a wireless MIMO communications link with at least one corresponding CPE unit to wirelessly transfer data received from the network fuser;

wherein the network fuser is operable to provision bandwidth to a particular GPE unit based on a forward link state or a reverse link state of the wireless communication link between the particular GPE unit and the corresponding CPE unit.

49. A system for provisioning broad-band fixed wireless access comprising:

a gateway, further comprising;

a plurality of gateway premises equipment (“

GPE”

) units;

a network fuser connected to the plurality of GPE units to coordinate the activities of the plurality of the GPE units to act as a base station, wherein the network fuser is operable to connect to a high-speed network and to provision data from the high-speed network to each of the plurality of GPE units;

a plurality of customer premises equipment (“

CPE”

) units remote from the gateway;

wherein each GPE unit is operable to establish a wireless MIMO communications link with at least one corresponding CPE unit to wirelessly transfer data received from the network fuser;

wherein the network fuser is operable to provision bandwidth to a particular GPE unit based on user information for a user associated with the corresponding CPE for the particular GPE.

50. The system of claim 49, wherein the user information comprises an access history, a user priority, an account balance grade-of-service, or quality-of-service requirements.

51. The system of claim 50, wherein the network fuser is operable to store the user information indexed by a user name, a network address, a MAC address or a flow number.

52. A system for provisioning broad-band fixed wireless access comprising:

a gateway, further comprising;

a plurality of gateway premises equipment (“

GPE”

) units;

a network fuser connected to the plurality of GPE units to coordinate the activities of the plurality of the GPE units to act as a base station, wherein the network fuser is operable to connect to a high-speed network and to provision data from the high-speed network to each of the plurality of GPE units; and

a plurality of customer premises equipment (“

CPE”

) units remote from the gateway;

wherein each GPE unit is operable to establish a wireless MIMO communications link with at least one corresponding CPE unit to wirelessly transfer data received from the network fuser;

wherein the network fuser is further operable to provision bandwidth to the plurality of GPE units based on a state of a backhaul network.

53. A system for provisioning broad-band fixed wireless access comprising:

a gateway, further comprising;

a plurality of gateway premises equipment (“

GPE”

) units;

a network fuser connected to the plurality of GPE units to coordinate the activities of the plurality of the GPE units to act as a base station, wherein the network fuser is operable to connect to a high-speed network and to provision data from the high-speed network to each of the plurality of GPE units; and

a plurality of customer premises equipment (“

CPE”

) units remote from the gateway;

wherein each GPE unit is operable to establish a wireless MIMO communications link with at least one corresponding CPE unit to wirelessly transfer data received from the network fuser;

wherein the network fuser is further operable to provision bandwidth based on channel statistics.

54. The system of claim 53, wherein the channel statistics comprise a delay spread, average capacity, path loss or fading rate.

55. A system for provisioning broad-band fixed wireless access comprising:

a gateway, further comprising;

a plurality of gateway premises equipment (“

GPE”

) units;

a network fuser connected to the plurality of GPE units to coordinate the activities of the plurality of the GPE units to act as a base station, wherein the network fuser is operable to connect to a high-speed network and to provision data from the high-speed network to each of the plurality of GPE units; and

a plurality of customer premises equipment (“

CPE”

) units remote from the gateway;

wherein each GPE unit is operable to establish a wireless MIMO communications link with at least one corresponding CPE unit to wirelessly transfer data received from the network fuser;

wherein the network fuser is operable to instruct the plurality of GPE units and CPE units to perform channel probes;

wherein the network fuser instructs plurality of GPE units and CPE units to perform channel probes to determine interference caused by simultaneous transmissions.

56. A system for provisioning broad-band fixed wireless access comprising:

a gateway, further comprising;

a plurality of gateway premises equipment (“

GPE”

) units;

a network fuser connected to the plurality of GPE units to coordinate the activities of the plurality of the GPE units to act as a base station, wherein the network fuser is operable to connect to a high-speed network and to provision data from the high-speed network to each of the plurality of GPE units; and

a plurality of customer premises equipment (“

CPE”

) units remote from the gateway;

wherein each GPE unit is operable to establish a wireless MIMO communications link with at least one corresponding CPE unit to wirelessly transfer data received from the network fuser;

wherein the network fuser is operable to instruct the plurality of GPE units and CPE units to perform channel probes;

wherein the network fuser is further operable to derive instantaneous channel statistics based on the channel probes.

57. The system of claim 56, wherein the instantaneous channel statistics comprise a mean, a variance, a delay spread, a power-delay profile, Doppler, a special covariance, a correlation, or a space-time correlation.

58. A system for provisioning broad-band fixed wireless access comprising:

a gateway, further comprising;

a plurality of gateway premises equipment (“

GPE”

) units;

a network fuser connected to the plurality of GPE units to coordinate the activities of the plurality of the GPE units to act as a base station, wherein the network fuser is operable to connect to a high-speed network and to provision data from the high-speed network to each of the plurality of GPE units; and

a plurality of customer premises equipment (“

CPE”

) units remote from the gateway;

wherein each GPE unit is operable to establish a wireless MIMO communications link with at least one corresponding CPE unit to wirelessly transfer data received from the network fuser;

wherein the network fuser is operable to;

determine a CPE unit from the plurality of CPE units that has a largest queue of data to be sent to the CPE unit;

determine a maximum data rate that can be used to send data to the CPE with the largest queue; and

if a total capacity exceeds the maximum data rate, provisioning bandwidth to send data to the CPE unit with the largest queue and using excess capacity to service other CPE units.

59. The system of claim 58, wherein if the total capacity does not exceed the maximum data rate, provisioning bandwidth to only send data to the CPE with the largest queue.

60. A system for provisioning broad-band fixed wireless access comprising:

a gateway, further comprising;

a plurality of gateway premises equipment (“

GPE”

) units;

a network fuser connected to the plurality of GPE units to coordinate the activities of the plurality of the GPE units to act as a base station, wherein the network fuser is operable to connect to a high-speed network and to provision data from the high-speed network to each of the plurality of GPE units; and

a plurality of customer premises equipment (“

CPE”

) units remote from the gateway;

wherein each GPE unit is operable to establish a wireless MIMO communications link with at least one corresponding CPE unit to wirelessly transfer data received from the network fuser;

wherein the network fuser is further operable to adjust adaptive antennas in each of the plurality of GPE units;

wherein the network fuser is operable to adjust the adaptive antennas based on user information comprising an access history, a user priority, an account balance grade-of-service, or quality-of-service requirements.

61. A system for provisioning broad-band fixed wireless access comprising:

a gateway, further comprising;

a plurality of gateway premises equipment (“

GPE”

) units;

a network fuser connected to the plurality of GPE units to coordinate the activities of the plurality of the GPE units to act as a base station, wherein the network fuser is operable to connect to a high-speed network and to provision data from the high-speed network to each of the plurality of GPE units; and

a plurality of customer premises equipment (“

CPE”

) units remote from the gateway;

wherein each GPE unit is operable to establish a wireless MIMO communications link with at least one corresponding CPE unit to wirelessly transfer data received from the network fuser;

wherein the network fuser is further operable to adjust adaptive antennas in each of the plurality of GPE units;

wherein the network fuser is further operable to adjust the adaptive antennas based on channel statistics comprising a delay spread, average capacity, path loss, fading rate, a mean, a variance, a power-delay profile, Doppler, a special covariance, a correlation, or a space-time correlation.

62. A network fuser comprising:

a first interface to connect to a high-speed network;

a second interface to connect to a control data transport medium for connecting to one or more gateway/customer premises (GPE/CPE) units;

a processor;

a computer readable medium accessible by the processor, containing a set of computer instructions,

wherein the network fuser is operable to;

coordinate and schedule the activities of the plurality of the GPE/CPE units to establish wireless MIMO communications links; and

provision bandwidth to the plurality of GPE/CPE units.

63. The network fuser of claim 62, wherein the network fuser is operable to recognize the addition of a new GPE/CPE unit connected to the network fuser and provision bandwidth based on the addition of the new GPE/CPE unit.

64. The network fuser of claim 62, wherein the network fuser is operable to provision bandwidth to a GPE/CPE unit based on a forward link state or a reverse link state of the wireless communication link between the GPE/CPE unit and another GPE/CPE unit.

65. The network fuser of claim 62, wherein the network fuser is operable to provision bandwidth to a GPE/CPE unit based on user information.

66. The network fuser of claim 65, wherein the user information comprises an access history, a user priority, an account balance grade-of-service, or quality-of-service requirements.

67. The network fuser of claim 66, wherein the network fuser is operable to store the user information indexed by a user name, a network address, a MAC address or a flow number.

68. The network fuser of claim 62, wherein the network fuser is further operable to provision bandwidth to a GPE/CPE unit based on a state of a backhaul network.

69. The network fuser of claim 62, wherein the network fuser is further operable to provision bandwidth based on channel statistics.

70. The network fuser of claim 69, wherein the channel statistics comprise a delay spread, average capacity, path loss and fading rate.

71. The network fuser of claim 62, wherein the network fuser is operable to instruct a GPE/CPE unit to probe a channel.

72. The network fuser of claim 71, wherein the GPE/CPE unit probes the channel according to training sequences.

74. The network fuser of claim 71, wherein the network fuser is further operable to instruct the GPE/CPE unit to probe the channel on-line.

75. The network fuser of claim 71, wherein the network fuser is further operable to instruct the GPE/CPE unit to probe the channel off-line.

76. The network fuser of claim 71, wherein the network fuser is operable to instruct a plurality of GPE/CPE units to perform channel probes to determine interference caused by simultaneous transmissions.

77. The network fuser of claim 62, wherein the network fuser is further operable to derive instantaneous channel statistics based on channel probes by GPE/CPE units.

78. The network fuser of claim 77, wherein the instantaneous channel statistics comprise a mean, a variance, a delay spread, a power-delay profile, Doppler, a special covariance, a correlation, or a space-time correlation.

79. The network fuser of claim 62, wherein the network fuser is operable to:

determine a GPE/CPE unit with a largest queue of data;

determine a maximum data rate that can be used to send data to the GPE/CPE with the largest queue; and

if a total capacity exceeds the maximum data rate, provisioning bandwidth to send data to the GPE/CPE unit with the largest queue and using excess capacity to service other GPE/CPE units.

80. The network fuser of claim 79, wherein if the total capacity does not exceed the maximum data rate, the network fuser is operable to provision bandwidth to only send data to the GPE/CPE unit with the largest queue.

81. The network fuser of claim 62, wherein the network fuser is further operable to configure one or more GPE/CPE units to adjust a plurality of adaptive antennas.

82. The network fuser of claim 81, wherein the network fuser is operable to adjust the adaptive antennas based on user information comprising an access history, a user priority, an account balance, grade-of-service, or quality-of-service requirements.

83. The network fuser of claim 81, wherein the network fuser is further operable to adjust adaptive antennas based on channel statistics comprising a delay spread, average capacity, path loss, fading rate, a mean, a variance, a power-delay profile, Doppler, a special covariance, a correlation, or a space-time correlation.

84. The network fuser of claim 62, wherein the network fuser is operable to allocate physical layer resources to a plurality of GPE/CPE units.

85. The network fuser of claim 62, wherein the network fuser is operable to:

analyze packets received over the high-speed network; and

configure the plurality of GPE units to wireless communicate data from the packets to the plurality of CPE units.

86. The network fuser of claim 62, wherein the network fuser is operable to provision bandwidth based on usage.

87. The network fuser of claim 62, wherein the network fuser is operable to provision bandwidth based on quality of service.

88. The network fuser of claim 62, wherein the network fuser is operable to provision bandwidth based on service provider requirements.

73. The network fuser of 71, wherein the GPE/CPE unit can probe the channel using pilot tones.

89. A method of wireless communication comprising:

receiving data from a network at a control device;

providing radio frequency (“

RF”

) configuration information from the control device to a first gateway/customer premises equipment (GPE/CPE) unit via a control data transport link between the control device and the first GPE/CPE unit;

providing digital signal processing (“

DSP”

) configuration information from the control device to the first GPE/CPE unit via the control data transport link; and

coordinating the activity of the first gateway/customer premises equipment (GPE/CPE) unit and a second GPE/CPE to establish wireless communications links.

90. The method of claim 89, wherein providing DSP configuration information further comprises indicating a space-time algorithm to be applied by the first GPE/CPE unit.

91. The method of claim 89, wherein providing DSP configuration information further comprises indicating a coding to be applied by the first GPE/CPE unit.

92. The method of claim 89, wherein providing DSP configuration information further comprises indicating a modulation to be applied by the first GPE/CPE unit.

93. The method of claim 89, further comprising configuring an RF backplane of the first GPE/CPE unit.

94. The method of claim 89, further comprising configuring the first GPE/CPE unit to establish a MIMO communications link with a the second GPE/CPE unit.

95. The method of claim 89, further comprising instructing the first GPE/CPE unit to probe a channel.

96. The method of claim 89, further comprising provisioning bandwidth to a communication link established between the first GPE/CPE unit and the second GPE/CPE unit.

97. The method of claim 89, further comprising providing access controls.

98. The method of claim 89, wherein the first GPE/CPE unit further comprises one or more adaptive antennas, and wherein the method further comprises configuring the first GPE/CPE unit to adjust the one or more adaptive antennas.

99. The method of claim 98, wherein said configuring the first GPE/CPE unit to adjust the one or more adaptive antennas comprises configuring the first GPE/CPE unit to adjust one or more beam patterns.

100. The method of claim 89, further comprising provisioning data to a second GPE/CPE unit connected to the control device via the control data transport medium.

101. A method of wireless communication comprising:

receiving data from a network at a control device;

providing radio frequency (“

RF”

) configuration information from the control device to a first gateway/customer premises equipment (GPE/CPE) unit via a control data transport link between the control device and the first GPE/CPE unit;

providing digital signal processing (“

DSP”

) configuration information from the control device to the first GPE/CPE unit via the control data transport link; and

configuring the first GPE/CPE unit based on instantaneous channel data received from the first GPE/CPE unit.

102. A method of wireless communication comprising:

receiving data from a network at a control device;

providing radio frequency (“

RF”

) configuration information from the control device to a first gateway/customer premises equipment (GPE/CPE) unit via a control data transport link between the control device and the first GPE/CPE unit;

providing digital signal processing (“

DSP”

) configuration information from the control device to the first GPE/CPE unit via the control data transport link; and

configuring the first GPE/CPE unit based on instantaneous channel data derived by the second GPE/CPE unit.

103. A non-transitory computer-readable medium containing instructions that, upon execution by a processor, result in the execution of operations comprising:

receiving data from a network;

providing radio frequency (“

RF”

) configuration information to a first gateway/customer premises equipment (GPE/CPE) unit via a control data transport link to the first GPE/CPE unit;

providing digital signal processing (“

DSP”

) configuration information to the first GPE/CPE unit via the control data transport link; and

coordinating the activity of the first gateway/customer premises equipment (GPE/CPE) unit and a second GPE/CPE to establish wireless communications links.

104. The medium of claim 103, wherein providing DSP configuration information further comprises indicating a space-time algorithm to be applied by the first GPE/CPE unit.

105. The medium of claim 103, wherein providing DSP configuration information further comprises indicating a coding to be applied by the first GPE/CPE unit.

106. The medium of claim 103, wherein providing DSP configuration information further comprises indicating a modulation to be applied by the first GPE/CPE unit.

107. The medium of claim 103, said operations further comprising configuring an RF backplane of the first GPE/CPE unit.

108. The medium of claim 103, said operations further comprising configuring the first GPE/CPE unit to establish a MIMO communications link with the second GPE/CPE unit.

109. The medium of claim 108, said operations further comprising configuring the first GPE/CPE unit based on instantaneous channel data received from the first GPE/CPE unit.

110. The medium of claim 108, said operations further comprising configuring the first GPE/CPE unit based on instantaneous channel data derived by the second GPE/CPE unit.

111. The medium of claim 103, said operations further comprising instructing the first GPE/CPE unit to probe a channel.

112. The medium of claim 103, said operations further comprising provisioning bandwidth to a communication link established between the first GPE/CPE unit and the second GPE/CPE unit.

113. The medium of claim 103, said operations further comprising providing access controls.

114. The medium of claim 103, wherein the first GPE/CPE unit further comprises one or more adaptive antennas, and wherein said operations further comprise configuring the first GPE/CPE unit to adjust the one or more adaptive antennas.

115. The medium of claim 114, wherein said configuring the first GPE/CPE unit to adjust the one or more adaptive antennas comprises configuring the first GPE/CPE unit to adjust one or more beam patterns.

116. The medium of claim 103, said operations further comprising provisioning data to a second GPE/CPE unit via the control data transport medium.