Broadband CDMA overlay system and method

A spread-spectrum code division multiple access (CDMA) communications system for communicating data between spread-spectrum units, said spread-spectrum CDMA communications system located within a same geographical region as occupied by a mobile-cellular system having an allocated frequency spectrum, with each cell of the mobile-cellular system having a cellular bandwidth divided into predetermined channels and having guard bands between the predetermined channels, the mobile-cellular system having cellular users communicating on the predetermined channels, said spread-spectrum CDMA communications system overlaying the cellular bandwidth and reusing the allocated frequency spectrum, comprising:

• a plurality of spread-spectrum units, located within the mobile-cellular system for communicating data to a plurality of spread-spectrum unit users, each of said plurality of spread-spectrum units including,
• a unit modulator for converting the data to a form for output to communicate over radio waves;
• a unit-spread-spectrum modulator for spread-spectrum-processing the converted data;
• and
• a unit-spread-spectrum transmitter for transmitting across the cellular bandwidth, the spread-spectrum-processed-converted data from said spread-spectrum unit to a spread-spectrum-base station as a spread-spectrum signal;
• said spread-spectrum-base station including,
• a base antenna for receiving the spread-spectrum signal;
• a base-comb-filter coupled to said base antenna for notch filtering the received spread-spectrum signal at the predetermined channels, reducing interference to the cellular users and to the spread-spectrum unit users such that the allocated frequency spectrum effectively supports four to eleven times an original maximum-capacity number of the cellular users as supported users, the supported users including the cellular users and the spread-spectrum unit users;
• and
• a base-spread-spectrum-receiver, coupled to said base-comb-filter, for recovering the data communicated from said spread-spectrum unit, said base-spread-spectrum receiver including a base-spread-spectrum-filter and a base spread-spectrum-demodulator.

A spread-spectrum receiver for use with a spread-spectrum-base station of a spread-spectrum code division multiple access (CDMA) communications system for communicating data between a plurality of spread-spectrum units, said spread-spectrum communications system located within a geographical area occupied by a mobile-cellular system having an allocated frequency spectrum, with each cell of the mobile-cellular system having a cellular bandwidth divided into predetermined channels and having guard bands between the predetermined channels, the mobile-cellular system having a plurality of cellular users communicating on the predetermined channels, said spread-spectrum CDMA communications system overlaying the cellular bandwidth and reusing the allocated frequency spectrum, said spread-spectrum receiver comprising:

• a base antenna;
• base-sector means for dividing the geographical area, within which the spread spectrum communications system is located, into six sectors, said base-sector means including a six sector antenna and control circuits for handing-off between sectors;
• a base-comb-filter for notch filtering a received spread-spectrum signal at the predetermined channels;
• and
• a base-detector, coupled through said base-comb-filter and said base-sector means to said base antenna, for recovering the data in the received spread-spectrum signal communicated from at least one of said plurality of spread-spectrum units.

A broadband code division multiple access (B-CDMA) spread-spectrum communications system for communicating data between a plurality of spread-spectrum units, said B-CDMA spread-spectrum communications system located within a same geographical region as occupied by a mobile-cellular system having mobile-cellular units, with each cell of the mobile-cellular system having a cellular bandwidth divided into predetermined channels separated by guard bands, said mobile-cellular units communicating on the predetermined channels, said B-CDMA spread-spectrum communications system overlaying the cellular bandwidth such that a total number of the plurality of spread-spectrum units and the mobile-cellular units using the cellular bandwidth is from four to eleven times a number of original mobile-cellular units before overlay, with the number of original mobile-cellular units being close to a maximum number supportable by the mobile-cellular system, comprising:

• a plurality of spread-spectrum-base stations, each of said plurality of spread-spectrum-base stations located within a cell of the mobile-cellular system for communicating the data to the plurality of spread-spectrum units, each of said plurality of spread-spectrum-base stations having base-sector means including at least a three-sector antenna for dividing a geographical area covered by said spread-spectrum-base station into at least three sectors, with said spread-spectrum-base station, for each sector, including,
• base-converting means for converting the format of the data into a form for output to communicate over radio waves;
• base-spread-spectrum-processing means for spread-spectrum-processing the converted data;
• base-transmitting means for transmitting across the cellular bandwidth in a sector the spread-spectrum-processed-converted data from the spread-spectrum-base station to a spread-spectrum unit in the sector as a spread-spectrum signal;
• and
• a base comb filter for notching out the predetermined channels of the mobile-cellular system;
• the plurality of spread-spectrum units, each of said plurality of spread-spectrum units including,
• a unit antenna for receiving the spread-spectrum signal as a received signal;
• and
• a unit-spread-spectrum receiver, coupled to said unit antenna, for recovering the data in the received signal, said unit-spread-spectrum receiver including a unit filter for filtering the spread-spectrum signal and a unit demodulator for despreading the spread-spectrum signal;
• said base-sector means, by focusing power to the relevant sector, allowing said base-transmitting means to transmit at a reduced power level, thereby reducing a combined interfering power level from the mobile-cellular units and said spread-spectrum base station, such that cellular bandwidth capacity is increased from four to eleven times the original number of mobile-cellular units.

A broadband code division multiple access (B-CDMA) spread spectrum communications system for communicating data between a plurality of spread-spectrum units, said B-CDMA spread-spectrum communications system located within a same geographical region as occupied by a mobile-cellular system having mobile-cellular units, with each cell of the mobile-cellular system having a cellular bandwidth divided into predetermined channels separated by guard bands, said mobile-cellular units communicating on the predetermined channels, said B-CDMA spread-spectrum communications system overlaying the cellular bandwidth such that a total number of the plurality of spread-spectrum units and mobile-cellular units using the cellular bandwidth is from four to eleven times a number of original mobile-cellular units before overlay, with the number of original mobile-cellular units being close to a maximum number supportable by the mobile-cellular system, comprising:

• the plurality of spread-spectrum units, located within the same geographical region as occupied by the mobile-cellular system for communicating the data to a plurality of users, each of said spread-spectrum units including,
• unit-converting means for converting data to a form for output to communicate over radio waves;
• unit-spread-spectrum-processing means for spread-spectrum-processing the converted data;
• and
• unit-transmitting means for transmitting, across the cellular bandwidth, the spread-spectrum-processed-converted data to a spread-spectrum-base station as a spread-spectrum signal;
• a spread-spectrum-base station including,
• a base transmitter;
• a base antenna for receiving the spread-spectrum signal;
• base-sector means coupled to said base antenna and to said base transmitter for sectoring the received spread-spectrum signal and for allowing said base transmitter to transmit at a reduced power level, thereby reducing a combined interfering power level from the mobile-cellular units and said spread-spectrum base station, such that cellularbandwidth capacity is increased from four to eleven times the number of original mobile-cellular units;
• base-comb-filtering means for attenuating the received spread-spectrum signal at the predetermined channels;
• and
• base-detection means, coupled to said base-sector means, for recovering the data communicated in the spread-spectrum signal, said base-detection means including base-despreading means for despreading the received spread-spectrum signal to recover the converted data.

A spread-spectrum receiver for use with a spread-spectrum-base station of a spread-spectrum code division multiple access (CDMA) communications system, for communicating data between a plurality of spread-spectrum units, said spread-spectrum communications system located within a geographical area occupied by a mobile-cellular system having an allocated frequency spectrum, with each cell of the mobile-cellular system having a cellular bandwidth divided into a plurality of predetermined channels and having guard bands between said plurality of predetermined channels, the mobile-cellular system having a plurality of cellular users communicating on said plurality of predetermined channels, said spread-spectrum CDMA communications system overlaying the cellular bandwidth and reusing the allocated frequency spectrum, said spread-spectrum receiver comprising:

• a base antenna;
• base-sector means for dividing the geographical area, within which the spread spectrum communications system is located, into three sectors, said base-sector means including a three-sector antenna and control circuits for handing-off between sectors;
• base-comb-filtering means for notch filtering a received spread-spectrum signal at the plurality of predetermined channels;
• and
• base-detection means, coupled through said base-comb-filtering means and said base-sector means to said base antenna, for recovering the data in the received spread-spectrum signal communicated from one of said plurality of spread-spectrum units.

A method, using a spread-spectrum code division multiple access (CDMA) communications system, for communicating data between a plurality of spread-spectrum units and a spread-spectrum-base station located with a same geographical region as occupied by a mobile-cellular system having an allocated frequency spectrum, with each cell of the mobile-cellular system having a cellular bandwidth divided into predetermined channels and having guard bands between the predetermined channels, said mobile-cellular system having cellular users communicating on the predetermined channels, said spread-spectrum CDMA communications system overlaying the cellular bandwidth and reusing the allocated frequency spectrum, said method comprising the steps of:

• sectoring a geographical area covered by a spread-spectrum-base station into at least two sectors, and from said spread-spectrum-base station and within each sector,
• converting the format of the data into a form for communicating over radio waves;
• spread-spectrum processing the converted data as a spread-spectrum-processed converted data signal;
• transmitting the spread-spectrum-processed converted data signal across the cellular bandwidth in an appropriate sector as a spread-spectrum signal;
• receiving, at a spread-spectrum unit in the appropriate sector, the spread-spectrum signal;
• notch filtering, at said spread-spectrum unit, the spread-spectrum signal at the predetermined channels;
• demodulating, at said spread-spectrum unit, the spread-spectrum signal;
• and
• recovering, at said spread-spectrum unit, the data from the spread-spectrum signal.