Cooperating arrangement for diversity stations

A transmitting and receiving cooperating diversity station (30 or 40) for use in a space diversity arrangement wherein a pair of such stations are spaced-apart and interconnected by a communication link (20) and wherein each station is capable of providing two-way communication with a distant point (12), the station comprising:

• fade detecting means (100) capable of detecting a fade condition occurring in transmissions between the station and the distant point and for generating a control signal representative of such fade condition characterized in that
• the station further comprises:
• means (74.sub.1 -74.sub.n, 76, 94, 95.sub.1 -95.sub.n) capable of handling two-way traffic with an associated service region (32 or 42) via an associated distribution network (33 or 43);
• and
• diversity switching means (70, 102, 104, 105, 108, 110, 116, 118.sub.1 -118.sub.N+1, 120.sub.1 -120.sub.N+1) capable of (a) being responsive to control signals from the fade detecting means for generating a take-over control signal which is applied to an input to the communication link for transmission to the other station of the pair of spaced-apart interconnected stations and for switching normal two-way communications with the distant point directly to the input to the communication link to permit such two-way communications to be transmitted via the communication link and the other station of the pair of spaced-apart interconnected stations to the distant point, and (b) being responsive to a take-over control signal received from the other station of the pair of spaced-apart interconnected stations at an output from the communication link for providing the capability of two-way communications between the transmitting and receiving cooperating diversity station and the distant point for both normal two-way communications associated with the related service region and two-way communications received on the communication link that would normally be sent by the other station of the pair of spaced-apart interconnected stations to the distant point.

A method of providing a space diversity arrangement wherein a pair of space diversity stations (30 and 40) are interconnected by a communication link (20) and each station is capable of providing two-way radio communication with a distant point (12) of the system characterized in that

• the method comprises the steps of:
• (a) during a non-fade condition at each of the two space diversity stations, causing each of the stations to handle the traffic of a separate service region (32 or 42) via an associated distribution network (33 or 43) and for directly transmitting and receiving two-way communications with the distant point that are related to the associated service region;
• and
• during a fade condition occurring at one of the two space diversity stations;
• (b) detecting the occurrence of a fade condition at any one of the two stations;
• (c) in response to step (b), transmitting a take-over control signal over the communication link from the fading station to the non-faded station of the pair of stations;
• (d) enabling the fading station in response to step (b) for rerouting the normal direct two-way communications between the fading station and the distant point via the communication link to the non-faded station of the pair of stations while handling all the traffic of the associated service region;
• and
• (e) concurrent with step (d) and in response to step (c), enabling the non-faded station of the pair for providing direct two-way communication between the non-faded station and the distant point for both signals to the service region associated with the non-faded station and signals associated with the faded station transmitted on the communication link.