Claims
- 1. A wireless communication node comprising:
an antenna defining a first wireless coverage area and a second wireless coverage area, wherein the first wireless coverage area extends in a first beam pattern and the second wireless coverage area extends in a second beam pattern, and wherein said second beam pattern comprises at least one directional beam having a direction which is variable.
- 2. A node according to claim 1, wherein the direction is variable by means of one of beam switching and beam steering.
- 3. A node according to claim 1, wherein said first coverage area provides at least one wireless link and said second coverage area provides at least one wireless link.
- 4. A node according to claim 1, wherein said first coverage area provides at least one access link and said second coverage area provides at least one backhaul link.
- 5. A node according to claim 1 further comprising:
a first radio for communication over said first coverage area; and a second radio for communication over said second coverage area.
- 6. A node according to claim 1 further comprising:
a radio for communication over both said first and said second coverage areas.
- 7. A node according to claim 1 further comprising:
an apparatus routing traffic between the first and the second coverage areas.
- 8. A node according to claim 4 comprising an apparatus routing traffic between a first and a second of the at least one backhaul link.
- 9. A node according to claim 1, further comprising a radio for communication over any one of said at least one directional beam in a specified time period.
- 10. A node according to claim 1, wherein the first beam pattern comprises an omni-directional pattern.
- 11. A node according to claim 10, wherein the antenna comprises an omni-directional antenna arrangement.
- 12. A node according to claim 1, wherein the antenna comprises an omni-directional antenna arrangement and a multi-beam antenna arrangement.
- 13. A node according to claim 4 wherein a backhaul link is be coupled to any of a plurality of the at least one directional beam.
- 14. A node according to claim 1 in which the first and second coverage areas share a common communication band.
- 15. A node according to claim 1 employing multiple communications bands.
- 16. A node according to claim 15 in which none of the multiple communications bands overlap.
- 17. A node according to claim 15 in which multiple communication bands are associated with at least one of the first coverage area and the second coverage area.
- 18. A node according to claim 15 in which at least one communication band is shared between the first and second coverage areas.
- 19. A node according to claim 1 employing at least two communications bands.
- 20. A node according to claim 19 employing two communications bands.
- 21. A node according to claim 1 in which first and second coverage areas are polarisation diverse.
- 22. A node according to claim 1 in which the antenna is multi-facetted.
- 23. A node according to claim 22 in which each facet comprises at least one antenna.
- 24. A node according to claim 1 wherein said second beam pattern comprises a plurality of directional beams, and wherein neighbouring beams overlap in the angular domain.
- 25. A node according to claim 1 wherein the antenna comprises at least one Multiple Input Multiple Output antenna.
- 26. A node according to claim 1 wherein the antenna comprises a dual band antenna which is shared between first and second coverage areas.
- 27. A node according to claim 1, wherein said second beam pattern comprises a plurality of directional beams, and wherein the polarisation of each beam is independently selected.
- 28. A communications network comprising at least one node according to claim 1.
- 29. A method of providing wireless communications access comprising the steps of:
routing communications traffic associated with a subscriber over a wireless access link and over a wireless backhaul link, and an access node to which both the access link and backhaul link are coupled; and in which at least one of the wireless access link and the wireless backhaul link are transmitted over at least one beam of a multi-beam transmission system.
- 30. A program for computer on a machine readable medium, arranged to control a node for a wireless access network, the node comprising:
an antenna defining a first wireless coverage area and a second wireless coverage area, wherein the first wireless coverage area extends in a first beam pattern and the second wireless coverage area extends in a second beam pattern, and wherein said second beam pattern comprises at least one directional beam having a direction which is variable.
- 31. A method of providing a subscriber service the method comprising the steps of:
providing a node according to claim 1; and routing communications traffic associated with the subscriber service over the node.
- 32. A communications node for use in wireless networks, the node comprising:
first apparatus arranged to support at least one wireless link on a first wireless network; second apparatus arranged to support at least one wireless link on a second wireless network; and in which at least one of the first and second apparatuses comprises an antenna arrangement arranged to transmit using directional beams.
RELATED APPLICATION
[0001] This application is the full utility filing of U.S. provisional application No. 60/447,645 filed on Feb. 14, 2003, from which the present application claims priority and which is incorporated herein by reference.
Provisional Applications (1)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
|
60447645 |
Feb 2003 |
US |