Scalable broadband wireless mesh access network
The invention comprises a mesh access network architecture that provides a combination of high data rates to a large number of users and >99% coverage to potential customers in a service area. The network design also provides scalable capacity that scales to more capacity/users with additional frequency carriers and coverage over a large area with additional base-stations. This is achieved using a combination of centralized mesh network control and intelligent interference management.
1 . A mesh access network, comprising:
at least one base-station comprising a plurality of sectors;
each sector comprising of a plurality of terminal nodes, said terminal nodes comprising both indoor terminal nodes and outdoor terminal nodes, and comprising a plurality of outdoor repeaters;
wherein said nodes in each sector are arranged in a tree structure starting from said base-station;
wherein said base-station sectors use different frequency bands that are located in alternate sectors of said base-station; and
a module for interference management and sector reuse comprising network management of frequency, time, and directionality.
2 . The network of claim 1 , comprising:
at least one Base-Station→Level1-repeaters link; and
at least one Repeater→Repeater/Terminal or Base-station→Terminal link.
3 . The network of claim 2 , wherein said Base-Station→Level1-repeaters link can be active in all sectors in all cells simultaneously due to of transmitter and receiver antenna directionality;
wherein a predetermined percentage of all time-slots are preferably reserved for Base-Station→Level1-repeaters links.
4 . The network of claim 2 , wherein said in-sector Repeater→Repeater/Terminal or Base-station→Terminal link is active only in an assigned time-slot;
wherein said repeaters distribute data packets to/from terminals in said time-slots by scheduling non-interfering links to transmit at a same time.
5 . The network of claim 1 , wherein a sector of each base-station having a first frequency band is at least a cell radius away from another sector having said first frequency band.
6 . The network of claim 1 , wherein sectors with a same carrier and time-slot assignment are located a cell radius away from each other.
7 . The network of claim 1 , wherein communication with nodes in a sector that cannot communicate directly with said base-station is done through a first set of repeaters in a sector;
wherein data packets from said base-station to a node are switched to said node through multiple hops; and
wherein data packets from a node are transmitted through multiple hops to said base-station.
8 . The network of claim 1 , wherein capacity of a base-station is increased by adding more carriers.
9 . The network of claim 7 , wherein carriers are added sector by sector;
wherein a different base-station radio is provided for each sector for each carrier.
10 . The network of claim 9 , wherein at least a second set of first level repeaters is provided to communicate with said base-station on different carriers at the same time.
11 . The network of claim 9 , wherein other nodes in each sector must switch to different carriers for in-sector time-slots.
12 . The network of claim 1 , wherein each sector in said network represents a tree structure rooted at said base-station.
13 . The network of claim 1 , further comprising:
a plurality of links that use any of two types of time-slots for communication, wherein said time slots comprise long time slots and short time slots.
14 . The network of claim 13 , wherein long time-slots are spectrally efficient and are adapted to transmit a large number of bytes in each time-slot.
15 . The network of claim 14 , wherein said base-station communicates with level-1 repeaters (R1) using long time-slots, wherein said time-slots carry substantially all packets in said network destined to/from repeaters and terminals connected thereto.
16 . The network of claim 13 , wherein short time-slots have about 20% the capacity and 25% the duration of the long time-slots.
17 . The network of claim 16 , wherein substantially all Repeater→Repeater/Terminal and Base-station→Terminal links use short time-slots.
18 . The network of claim 16 , wherein short time-slots are time-multiplexed to maximize utilization of spectrum and reduce latency.