Granted Patent B2

US 7,359,675 · App. 10/880,387 · Granted Apr 15, 2008

Abstract

Claims (39)

1. A method for reducing interference, the method comprising:

selecting a network having a plurality of wireless cells; each one wireless cell of the network comprising at least two directional antennas that each transmits and receives radio signals within a respective physical sector, each one physical sector having an angle of coverage less than about 270 degrees, wherein the directional antennas are positioned in such a way that the physical sector of at least one of the directional antennas of the each one wireless cell overlaps the physical sector of at least one of the other directional antennas of the same wireless cell, wherein the directional antennas whose physical sectors overlap are assigned different channels, and wherein each wireless cell has an area of coverage;

determining a threshold value of an interfering signal;

selecting a preliminary wireless cell of the network as a selected wireless cell;

scanning for the interfering signal through each one of the antennas of the selected wireless cell;

marking the selected wireless cell when any one of the antennas of the selected wireless cell detects the threshold value of the interfering signal;

selecting a next wireless cell of the network as the selected wireless cell;

repeating detecting, marking, and selecting the next wireless cell until all of the wireless cells of the network have been tested; and

replacing each of the marked wireless cells with a plurality of smaller wireless cells each having an area of coverage smaller than the area of coverage of the marked wireless cell, wherein an cumulative area of coverage of the smaller wireless cells equals about the area of coverage of the marked wireless cell.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein replacing comprises replacing each one marked wireless cell with three smaller wireless cells.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising repeating selecting a preliminary wireless cell, scanning, marking, selecting the next wireless cell, repeating, and replacing until each wireless cell of the network does not detect the interfering signal.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising eliminating all wireless cells having an area of coverage less than a threshold area of coverage.

5. A method for reducing interference, the method comprising:

selecting a preliminary wireless cell of a plurality of wireless cells as a selected wireless cell;

marking the selected wireless cell when any one of at least two antennas of the selected wireless cell detects an interference;

selecting a next wireless cell as the selected wireless cell;

repeating marking and selecting the next wireless cell until all the wireless cells of the plurality of wireless cells have been selected; and

replacing each marked wireless cell with a plurality of smaller wireless cells; wherein:

a first network comprises the plurality of wireless cells;

each one wireless cell of the plurality of wireless cells comprises at least two directional antennas;

each one directional antenna of the at least two directional antennas comprises a respective physical sector having an angle of coverage of less than about 270 degrees;

the antennas are positioned in such a way that the physical sector of at least one of the antennas of the first wireless cell overlaps the physical sector of at least one of the other antennas of the first wireless cell by at least 30 percent thereby forming a respective virtual sector;

the antennas whose physical sectors overlap are assigned different channels of a plurality of channels;

a first antenna and a second antenna of at least one virtual sector simultaneously communicate respectively with at least one of a first wireless client, a second wireless client, and another wireless cell of the plurality of wireless cells of the first network; and

an area of coverage of each one smaller wireless cell comprises an area less than an area of coverage of the marked wireless cell.

6. The method of claim 5 further comprising eliminating each one wireless cell having an area of coverage less than a threshold area of coverage.

7. The method of 6 wherein the interference comprises a decreased signal-to-noise ratio.

8. The method of 6 wherein the interference comprises an increase in retransmission requests.

9. The method of 6 wherein the interference comprises an increase of dropped frames.

10. The method of claim 5 wherein the area of coverage of each one smaller wireless cell comprises an area that is smaller than the area of coverage of the marked wireless cell by a factor of one-half raised to an integer power.

11. The method of claim 5 wherein the interference comprises at least one of a radio signal having a signal strength greater than a threshold and a reduced data throughput.

12. The method of claim 5 wherein marking comprises scanning for a radio signal through each one of the at least two antennas of the selected wireless cell using a plurality of channels.

13. The method of claim 5 wherein replacing comprises:

positioning at least one smaller wireless cell; and

attenuating an incoming and outgoing signal through the at least two antennas of the marked wireless cell to reduce a size of the area of coverage of the marked wireless cell.

14. The method of claim 5 wherein:

the each one wireless cell of the plurality of the smaller wireless cell comprises an area of coverage about equal to the area of coverage of the marked wireless cell;

replacing comprises attenuating an incoming and outgoing signal through each antenna of the plurality of smaller wireless cells to reduce the area of coverage of each one smaller wireless cell.

15. The method of claim 5 wherein a cumulative area of coverage of the smaller cells is substantially equivalent to the area of coverage of the marked cell.

Assignments (6)