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US 2002/0173323 A1Published application
Allocation of channels to radio transceivers
AssigneeBritish Telecommunications public limited company
InventorRichard E. Tateson
Life of this patent
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AssigneeBritish Telecommunications public limited company
InventorRichard E. Tateson
Estimating the term…
Each base station in a network has an antenna 1 which is connected in the conventional way to a transceiver 2 for handling normal call traffic on one or more radio channels. In addition there is another transmitter 3 which transmits a test signal on each of several test channels, one for each radio channel available for use by the main transceiver 2. The transceiver also has a receiver 4 for detecting the test channels. The system is controlled by a timer 5 which ensures that the transmitter 3 and receiver 4 do not operate at the same time. The receive times may be random, or may be coordinated between individual base stations. When the receiver is in operation, it will detect transmissions of the test signals from other base stations. The signal strength is measured (measurement system 6) and the result is used by a control system 7 to determine a preference value for each channel: the stronger the signal detected, the lower the preference value. The preference value is used to control an amplifier system 8 which controls the signal strength of each channel transmitted by the transmitter 3. It is also used to control the traffic transceiver 2, by selecting which traffic channels are to be used in accordance with the preference values.
A communication channel allocation process for a radio transceiver network in which the process starts from a position in which each transceiver has the potential to use all available communication channels, and processes interactions between the transceivers causing each transceiver of the network to inhibit its neighbours from using a given communication channel, by generating a preference value for each communication channel in each transceiver indicative of the level of interference to be expected on that communication channel by that transceiver, characterised in that each transceiver transmits a set of test signals each representative of a respective one of the communication channels, each transceiver measures the strength of the interfering test signals received from the other transceivers and adjusts the power of each test signal it transmits in accordance with the strength of the respective received interfering test signals, the preference value for each communication channel being determined by the strength of the respective received interfering test signals.
A radio transceiver comprising communication channel selection means for selecting radio channels, the selection means having means for processing interactions between the transceiver and neighbouring transceivers, causing the transceiver to inhibit, or be inhibited by, its neighbours from using individual channels, by generating a preference value for each communication channel indicative of the level of interference to be expected on that communication channel by that transceiver, characterised in that the transceiver comprises means for transmitting a set of test signals each representative of a respective one of the communication channels, means for measuring the strength of interfering test signals received from other transceivers, and means for adjusting the power of each test signal it transmits in accordance with the strength of the respective received interfering test signals, and means for determining the strengths of the respective received interfering test signals, and deriving the preference value for each communication channel therefrom.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.