US 7,689,228 B2Granted

Method and apparatus for providing in-band wireless backhaul

AssigneeMotorola, Inc.

InventorGerald P. Labedz

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Abstract

Various embodiments are described to address the need for providing wireless backhaul that may reduce operator startup costs while avoiding some of the drawbacks present in the prior art approaches. Generally expressed, the wireless network equipment (WNE) (121) of a collector cell provides access to a backhaul network (151) to one or more neighboring cells (122) via in-band wireless signaling. Given the frequency bands used by the collector cell WNE for communication with remote units, one portion of each band used for user traffic while another portion of each band is used for backhaul traffic. Having backhaul and user traffic share the assigned frequency bands can eliminate the need to license additional bands for wireless backhaul. Moreover, utilizing a portion of the existing, in-band orthogonal channels may be more spectrally efficient than using a separate radio in the same band.

Claims13

Dependent claims

A method for providing in-band wireless backhaul connectivity, the method comprising the steps of:

transmitting and receiving traffic, by wireless network equipment (WNE) of a collector cell, to and from remote units within a wireless coverage area of the collector cell using a user portion of at least one frequency band;
wherein the wireless coverage area of the collector cell comprises a first, a second and a third sector of the collector cell,
wherein traffic is transmitted and received to and from remote units within the first sector of the collector cell using a user portion of a first frequency band of the at least one frequency band,
wherein traffic is transmitted and received to and from remote units within the second sector of the collector cell using a user portion of a second frequency band of the at least one frequency band, and
wherein traffic is transmitted and received to and from remote units within the third sector of the collector cell using a user portion of a third frequency band of the at least one frequency band;
and
transmitting and receiving traffic, by the WNE of the collector cell, to and from WNE of a neighbor cell using a backhaul portion of the at least one frequency band.

4 more elements

Wireless network equipment (WNE) of a collector cell, the WNE comprising:

a transceiver operable within a wireless coverage area of the collector cell, wherein the wireless coverage area of the collector cell comprises a first, a second and a third sector of the collector cell;
a processing unit, communicatively coupled to the transceiver,
adapted to receive uplink traffic from remote units within the first sector of the wireless coverage area of the collector cell using the transceiver and a user portion of a first frequency band of the at least one frequency band, to receive uplink traffic from remote units within the second sector of the collector cell using a user portion of a second frequency band of the at least one frequency band, and to receive uplink traffic from remote units within the third sector of the collector cell using a user portion of a third frequency band of the at least one frequency band,
adapted to receive downlink traffic from WNE of a neighbor cell using the transceiver and a backhaul portion of the at least one frequency band,
adapted to transmit the uplink traffic from the WNE of the neighbor cell to the WNE of the collector cell using the transceiver and a backhaul portion of the at least one frequency band, and
adapted to transmit the downlink traffic from the WNE of the collector cell to the remote units within the first sector of the wireless coverage area of the collector cell using the transceiver and a user portion of the first frequency band of the at least one frequency band, to transmit downlink traffic to remote units within the second sector of the collector cell using a user portion of a second frequency band of the at least one frequency band, and to transmit downlink traffic to remote units within the third sector of the collector cell using a user portion of a third frequency band of the at least one frequency band.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 11/434,312Filed 15 May 2006
Published: US 2007/0265013 A115 Nov 2007
Granted: 30 Mar 2010
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification4 codes

H04W 16/24
Network planning, e.g. coverage or traffic planning tools; Network deployment, e.g. resource partitioning or cells structures: cell structures
H04W 88/08
Devices specially adapted for wireless communication networks, e.g. terminals, base stations or access point devices: access point devices
H04W 92/20
Interfaces between hierarchically similar devices: between access points
H04W
Wireless communication networks