Wireless communication system
AssigneeDeltenna Limited
InventorAndrew John Fox
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An access point allows access from at least one user device, which may be a wireless device or a wired local area network device. The access point has radio frequency transceiver circuitry for communicating over a wireless link with a base station selected from a plurality of available base stations, and an antenna, having an adjustable preferred direction for transmission and reception of radio frequency signals. Control circuitry selects a preferred direction for the antenna such that the access point can establish a wireless link with one of said base stations, based on a data rate that is available over the wireless link.
Claims20
A method of operating a wireless cellular access point in electrical communication with a cellular network configured to allow access from at least one user device, the method comprising:
- (a) determining a set of acceptable cellular base stations by establishing a connection with at least one cellular base station among a plurality of cellular base stations, for a first protocol of operation;
- (b) for each cellular base station where a connection is established, determining the available data rate for the connection in a first protocol of operation;
- (c) repeating steps described in (a) and (b) for another protocol of operation in response to the cellular network and the cellular access point jointly supporting more than one protocol of operation;
- (d) selecting the cellular base station based on a metric that takes into account data rates available over the wireless links corresponding to the plurality of cellular base stations;
- (e) periodically repeating steps (a)-(d) during operation;
- (f)communicating over a wireless link with a cellular base station selected from a plurality of available cellular base stations by a cellular access point;
- and
- (g) operating the cellular access point such that an antenna adjusted in a preferred direction that is selected based on a data rate that is then available over the wireless link with a selected cellular base station.
An access point in electrical communication with a cellular network, the access point comprising:
- a first access interface, that provides access from at least one user device communicating with the cellular;
- radio frequency transceiver circuitry to determine (a) a set of acceptable cellular base stations by establishing a connection with at least one cellular base station among a plurality of cellular base stations, for a first protocol of operation, and (b) to determine an available data rate of the connection in a first protocol of operation for each cellular base station where a connection is established, the radio frequency transceiver circuitry repeating operations described in operations (a) and (b) for another protocol of operation in response to the cellular network and the cellular access point jointly supporting more than one protocol of operation;
- and
- base station control circuitry, to select the cellular base station based on a metric that takes into account data rates available over the wireless links corresponding to the plurality of cellular base stations;
- radio frequency transceiver circuitry that communicates over a wireless link with a cellular base station selected from a plurality of available cellular base stations;
- an antenna, having an adjustable preferred direction for transmission and reception of radio frequency signals;
- and
- beam direction control circuitry, that selects preferred direction for the antenna such that the cellular access point can establish a wireless link with one of the cellular base stations, based on a data rate that is available over the wireless link,
- wherein the radio frequency transceiver circuitry repeats each of operation (a) including the determining a set of acceptable cellular base stations and operation (b) including the determining available data rate of the connection for another protocol of operation in response to the cellular network and the cellular access point jointly supporting more than one protocol of operation, and wherein the operations of the radio frequency circuitry and the base station control circuitry are periodically repeated during operation.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.