Cellular communication system
OwnerDouglas Lockie, Mark Sturzainventors
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Methods and apparatus for improving the performance of a conventional cellular telephone system. In a conventional system, a base station (12) located in a cell (10) both sends and receives signals to and from handheld phones (14). In one embodiment, the present invention employs a relay transceiver (18) located in the cell (10) to relay signals (20) from handheld phones (14) to the a base station (12). The handheld (14) still receives signals (16) directly from the base station (12), but the return signal (22) back to the base station (12) is accomplished through the relay transceiver (18).
Claims23
An apparatus comprising:
- a base station in a cell;
- a terminal located in said cell;
- said terminal for communication with said base station;
- said terminal receiving a first signal from said base station;
- said cell including a microcell;
- said terminal being located in said microcell;
- said microcell including a relay transceiver for receiving a second signal from said terminal and for transmitting said second signal from said relay receiver to said base station using a relay signal.
A method comprising the steps of:
- transmitting a first signal from a base station;
- receiving said first signal from said base station using a terminal;
- transmitting a second signal from said terminal to a relay transceiver;
- and
- relaying said second signal from said relay transceiver to said base station.
A propagated signal comprising:
- a first signal transmitted from a base station;
- said first signal from said base station being received by a terminal;
- a second signal transmitted from said terminal to a relay transceiver;
- and
- a third signal transmitted from said relay transceiver back to said base station.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.