Remote antenna driver for a radio telephony system

A radiotelephone interface for communicating with transceivers in a defined area, the interface comprising:

• a) base station equipment;
• b) a bidirectional cable television system connecting the base station equipment to a plurality of antenna drivers;
• c) means for remapping the base station equipment to the area of coverage of the defined area by frequency division multiplex transmission of transmitted and received signals between the base station equipment and the antenna drivers over the cable television system in frequency bands reserved in the cable television system for downstream and upstream communications, respectively;
• d) the plurality of antenna drivers, including:
• d1) first frequency converter means for converting transmitted signals from a selected channel in the band reserved for downstream signals to a transmission frequency for application to the antenna corresponding to an independently selected air interface transmission channel, and
• d2) second frequency converter means for converting signals received by the antenna in a selected air interface reception channel to a frequency corresponding to an independently selected channel in the band reserved for upstream signals;
• and
• e) means applying a common reference frequency to the frequency converters to provide frequency coherency among the frequency converters.

A remote antenna driver for establishing a radiotelephony link between a bi directional CATV system connected to a base station and a portable radiotelephone transceiver using at least one channel within a portion of the radio frequency spectrum, the remote antenna driver comprising:

• a) at least one antenna;
• b) a receiver having a first frequency converter including a first local oscillator for converting signals received from the portable transceiver by the antenna in the portion of the radio frequency spectrum to a portion of the frequency spectrum allocated in the CATV system for upstream communications;
• c) an interface for applying the converted signals to the CATV system as upstream signals;
• d) a transmitter having second frequency converter including a second local oscillator for converting downstream signals received from the CATV system for transmission in a portion of the frequency spectrum allocated in the CATV system for downstream communications to the portion of the radio frequency spectrum, the transmitter applying the converted downstream signals to the at least one antenna;
• e) a circuit for extracting a reference frequency from a pilot signal applied to the circuit;
• and
• f) a controller for maintaining the frequency of the first and second local oscillators coherent with respect to the reference frequency.

A radiotelephone interface for communicating with a portable radiotelephone transceiver in a defined area, the interface comprising:

• a) base station equipment;
• b) a bi directional cable television (CATV) system connecting the base station equipment to a plurality of remote antenna drivers;
• c) means for remapping the base station equipment to an area of coverage of the defined area by frequency division multiplex transmission of transmitted and received signals between the base station equipment and the remote antenna drivers over the CATV system in frequency bands reserved in the CATV system for downstream and upstream communications, respectively;
• and
• d) the plurality of remote antenna drivers, each of the plurality of remote antenna drivers for establishing a radiotelephony link between the CATV system and a portable radiotelephone transceiver using at least one channel within a portion of the radio frequency spectrum, and including:
• 1) at least one antenna;
• 2) a receiver having a first frequency converter including a first local oscillator for converting signals received from the portable transceiver by the antenna in the portion of the radio frequency spectrum to a portion of the frequency spectrum allocated in the CATV system for upstream communications;
• 3) an interface for applying the converted signals to the CATV system as upstream signals;
• 4) a transmitter having second frequency converter including a second local oscillator for converting downstream signals received from the CATV system for transmission in a portion of the frequency spectrum allocated in the CATV system for downstream communications to the portion of the radio frequency spectrum, the transmitter applying the converted downstream signals to the at least one antenna;
• 5) a circuit for extracting a reference frequency from a pilot signal applied to the circuit;
• and
• 6) a controller for maintaining the frequency of the first and second local oscillators coherent with respect to the reference frequency.