US 6,647,244 B1Granted

Wireless vehicular repeater system

AssigneeThe Whitaker Corporation

InventorsWilliam Dean Haymond, Daniel Wayne Ericson

Life of this patent

Estimating the term…

Loading patent…

Abstract

A wireless communications system has a plurality of base stations 1, a plurality of mobile vehicular repeater units 2, and a plurality of portable units 3. In a public safety network context, each mobile vehicular repeater unit 2 is associated with a portable unit 3, and both are associated with a single user. The object is for the user to be able to access the wireless network for any geographic location. In cases where a geographic area is shadowed from a base station 1 and communication directly between the portable unit 3 and the base station 1 is not possible, it is beneficial to use the mobile vehicular repeater unit 2 as a vehicular repeater to relay communications between the portable unit 3 and the base station 1. When the mobile vehicular repeater unit 2 is operating as a repeater and communicating with the portable units, the frequency plan for transmission and reception is reversed.

Claims18

Dependent claims

A communication system comprising:

a base station, a mobile vehicular repeater unit, and a portable unit,
said base station transmitting to said mobile vehicular repeater unit over an upper frequency channel portion, and said mobile vehicular repeater unit transmitting to said base station over a lower frequency channel portion and said mobile vehicular repeater unit transmitting to said portable unit over the lower frequency channel portion and said portable unit transmitting to said mobile vehicular repeater unit over the upper frequency channel portion,
wherein the following four transmissions occur at different frequencies:
transmission from said mobile vehicular repeater unit to said base station;
transmission from said mobile vehicular repeater unit to said portable unit;
transmission from said base station to said mobile vehicular repeater unit;
and
transmission from said portable unit to said mobile vehicular repeater;
and, wherein:
the difference between a frequency at which said mobile vehicular repeater unit transmits to said base station and a frequency at which said mobile vehicular repeater unit transmits to said portable unit is about 2 MHz;
the difference between a frequency at which said base station transmits to said mobile vehicular repeater unit and a frequency at which said portable unit transmits to said mobile vehicular repeater unit is about 2 MHz;
the difference between a frequency at which said mobile vehicular repeater unit transmits to said base station and a frequency at which said base station transmits to said mobile vehicular repeater unit is about 45 MHz;
and
the difference between a frequency at which said mobile vehicular repeater unit transmits to said portable unit and a frequency at which said portable unit transmits to said mobile vehicular repeater unit is about 45 MHz.

11 more elements

A method for communicating in a communication system, the communication system comprising at least one base station, a primary mobile vehicular repeater unit, a primary portable unit and at least one alternative mobile vehicular repeater unit, the method comprising the steps of:

the portable unit following a frequency use plan of transmitting on a lower frequency channel portion and receiving on an upper frequency channel portion,
attempting to establish communication between the primary portable unit and any one of the at least one base stations, and if the attempt to establish communication between the primary portable unit and any one of the at least one base stations fails,
modifying the frequency use plan for the primary portable unit by transmitting on an upper frequency channel portion and receiving on a lower frequency channel portion,
attempting to establish communication between the primary portable unit and any one of the at least one alternative mobile vehicular repeater units, and if the attempt to establish communication between the primary portable unit and any one of the at least one alternative mobile vehicular repeater units fails,
establishing communication between the primary portable unit and the primary mobile vehicular repeater unit and between the primary mobile vehicular repeater unit and any one of the base stations.

2 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.