The present invention pertains to methods and apparatus for an enhanced cellular communication system. More particularly, one preferred embodiment of the invention employs specially adapted one-way transceivers located around a base station to receive signals from terminals, and to relay the terminal signals to the base station.
By the year 2007, the number of cellular telephone users worldwide is projected to exceed two billion. Although cellular phones have been in widespread use for over two decades, cell phone users are still plagued by poor voice quality and premature disconnections or “dropped calls.” Most of these unwanted disconnections are caused by the weakness of signals transmitted from handheld phones back to the base station that serves each cell. When the strength of this signal falls below a minimum threshhold, the call fails.
One of the most important limitations in a conventional cellular communications system is the return link from a terminal such as a handheld battery operated device. The base station transmitter can easily generate high levels of transmit power, since it includes a high power or “high gain” transmit antenna. The base station receive antenna is a relatively powerful, high gain antenna. The antennas at the base station are powerful because antenna gain is directly proportional to the size of an antenna, and the base station installations can accommodate large sized antennas.
The small handheld terminal antenna, however, is low gain. The power of a handheld phone is also constrained by limited battery power, and by efforts to minimize human exposure to strong radio emissions. The net effect is the handheld terminal transmits a low “EIRP” or effective isotropic radiated power. This relatively low EIRP is the cause of poor performance of most conventional cellular telephone systems. As a consequence, in many cellular calls, the user of the handheld terminal can hear the caller at the other end of call reasonably well, but the voice quality received by the other caller from the cellular phone user is generally diminished.
No current commercially-available device or system provides an inexpensive means of improving the quality of cellular calls and reducing the number of drop-outs. The development of such a system would constitute a major technological advance, and would satisfy long felt needs and aspirations in the telecommunications and cellular telephone industries.
The present invention enhances the performance of a conventional cellular telephone system. In a conventional system, a base station located in a cell both sends and receives signals to and from handheld phones.
In one embodiment, the present invention employs a relay transceiver located in the cell to relay signals from handheld phones to the a base station. The handheld still receives signals directly from the base station, but the return signal back to the base station is accomplished through the relay transceiver.
The present invention solves the problem of a poor quality communications in conventional cellular telephone systems caused by handheld terminals which are limited by low effective isotropic radiated power or “EIRP.” In one embodiment, this solution is accomplished by assisting the signal emitted from the handheld terminals. This assistance is provided by placing one or more relay transceivers in a cell with a base station. The signals from the handheld terminals are received by these relay transceivers, and then returned to the base station, which compensates for the low EIRP of the terminals.
An appreciation of the other aims and objectives of the present invention, and a more complete and comprehensive understanding of this invention, may be obtained by studying the following description of preferred and alternative embodiments, and by referring to the accompanying drawings.
I. Overview of the Invention
The present invention comprises methods and apparatus for improving the performance of conventional cellular telephone systems. In one embodiment, a relay transceiver is employed to receive signals from terminals in a cell, and then to send those signals to the base station located in that cell.
In this Specification and in the claims that follow, the term “conventional cellular telephone system” encompasses any system that employs a radio that communicates with a terminal located a limited region, zone or “cell.” The term “cell” pertains to a volume of space which resides generally above the surface of the Earth, and which is defined by a boundary or enclosure that is permanently associated with landmarks or some fixed geographic feature. A cell may be circular, or may be configured in some other suitable shape. In one embodiment of the invention, a the term “cell” refers to the coverage area of a base station.
An “inner cell” is generally located within a cell. A “microcell” is a relatively small cell. More than one microcell may comprise a cell. A “supercell” is a relatively large cell. More than one cell may comprise a supercell.
A “base station” includes any device for communicating over a distance, including a transmitter, receiver or transceiver that utilizes the radio, optical or other portions of the electromagnetic spectrum. In some instances, a base station may be referred to as a “base unit” or a “hub.” In one embodiment of the invention, a base station is afixed radio that is directly connected to a network, and which communicates with terminals.
A “terminal” generally refers to a handheld, mobile, fixed or other terminal which is capable of either receiving a signal from a base station, sending a signal to a base station, or both. In some cases, a terminal may be described as a “mobile station,” “mobile unit,” “subscriber unit,” or “handheld.” In general, all these terms refer to a radio that is used to communicate with the base station, and, in general, to another terminal that communicates through the network.
A “transmitter” is any device or means for sending a signal, while a “receiver” is any device or means for receiving a signal. A “transceiver” is capable of both sending and receiving.
A “network” comprises any combination, aggregation or assembly of links between nodes, terminals or some other source of signal, data or intelligence. A network may include a public switched telephone network (PSTN), the Internet, or a private network.
A “signal” encompasses any form of intelligence, language, data, content, sensation, representation or other form of communication. The terms “forward link,” “forward path,” and “forward channel” may be employed to signals that are transmitted from a base station to a terminal. The terms “reverse link,” “reverse path,” and “reverse channel” may be utilized to refer to signals that are transmitted from a terminal to a base station.
II. Preferred & Alternative Embodiments of the Invention
In one embodiment of the invention, millimeter waves are utilized for communications. In another embodiment of the invention, microwave frequencies are employed.
In
If a terminal 14 is within cell 10, but is outside inner cell 24, the return link from the terminal 14 to the base station 12 is completed with two hops, the second signal 20 from the terminal 14 to the relay transceiver 18, followed by the third signal 22 from the relay transceiver 18 to the base station 12. The signal flow that occurs when the terminal 14 is located outside the inner cell 24 is portrayed in
III. A Detailed Description of a Particular Embodiment of the Invention
In one embodiment of the invention, an array of receive antennas at the edge of the cell footprint. The base station transmit pattern is adjusted to cover the entire footprint. The base station receive pattern is adjusted to cover one half the distance to the cell boundary. The receive array nodes are placed in generally equally spaced locations around the base station on a circle centered at the base station and with a radius of three fourths of the radius of the cell coverage. The antenna patterns of the receive nodes are adjusted to cover from one half the radius of the main cell to the edge of the cell.
The signals from the receive nodes are carried back to the base station using a millimeter wave link, which can incorporate upwards of 5 GHz of RF spectrum, enabling cellular and PCS systems to operate simultaneously from this system. The present invention may also be implemented using the WiFi band. Once the receive node signals are carried back to the base station, they are processed as if they were received by the main cell site receive system, allowing for a few microseconds of additional delay. The net effect is that the handheld terminal return transmit link margin increases by 4 to 10 dB in a system that used a cell that is three miles in diameter.
In one particular embodiment of the invention, an enhanced cellular communications system includes:
Although this detailed description of one particular implementation of the invention incorporates unique design features, characteristics, geometries, and numerical specifications, this description is provided only as an illustration, and is not intended to limit the scope of the claims which follow this Specification.
IV. Advantages of the Present Invention
The present invention offers, but is not limited to, the following advantages:
Although the present invention has been described in detail with reference to one or more preferred embodiments, persons possessing ordinary skill in the art to which this invention pertains will appreciate that various modifications and enhancements may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the claims that follow. The various alternatives for providing a Cellular Communication System that have been disclosed above are intended to educate the reader about preferred embodiments of the invention, and are not intended to constrain the limits of the invention or the scope of claims.