US 9,313,827 B2 · Radio over ethernet for radio access network and cloud-RAN

Abstract

An architecture for transporting radio samples, compressed samples or pre-processed radio samples in symbol form across a communication network, including a packet switched network such as Ethernet. Further, the conversion of the radio samples from streaming data to a packetized format can also be performed. Processing of radio samples can be performed in a centralized location, where the centralized location can service multiple radio heads that are located across a large geographical area. This centralized processing can be referred to as Cloud-RAN. The radio heads can also perform pre-processing to reduce effective data rates across the communication network. Further, one or more of the components of the communication network can perform timing synchronization utilizing, for example, Synchronous Ethernet (SyncE) and/or IEEE 1588.

Claims21

Dependent claims

A remote radio head (RRH), comprising:

a transceiver unit configured to:
receive a radio signal stream from a centralized baseband processor;
de-packetize the received radio signal stream when a transmission protocol of the received radio signal stream is a packetized protocol and the RRH is configured to transmit a processed radio signal stream utilizing an unpacketized format;
and
packetize the received radio signal stream when the transmission protocol of the received radio signal stream is an unpacketized protocol and the RRH is configured to transmit the processed radio signal stream utilizing a packetized format;
and
a compression and physical (PHY) layer processing unit configured to process the de-packetized radio signal stream of the packetized radio signal stream to generate the processed radio signal stream, the processed radio signal stream being wirelessly transmitted to one or more remote devices via an antenna.

4 more elements

A wireless communication system, comprising:

a radio over Ethernet (ROE) switching unit in communication with a backhaul switching unit via a packetized transmission protocol, the backhaul switching unit being in communication with a centralized baseband processing unit via the packetized transmission protocol or an unpacketized transmission protocol;
and
a remote radio head (RRH) in communication with the ROE switching unit via the packetized or unpacketized transmission protocol;
wherein the ROE switching unit comprises:
a transceiver unit configured to:
receive a packetized radio signal stream from the backhaul switching unit via the packetized transmission protocol;
and
de-packetize the packetized radio signal stream to generate a de-packetized radio signal stream;
and
a compression and physical (PHY) layer processing unit configured to perform compression processing and PHY layer processing on the de-packetized radio signal stream to form a processed radio signal stream, wherein the processed radio signal stream is communicated to the RRH via the unpacketized transmission protocol.

7 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Radio over ethernet for radio access network and cloud-RAN

Life of this patent

Radio over ethernet for radio access network and cloud-RAN

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims21