Method and system for a channel selective repeater with capacity enhancement in a spread-spectrum wireless network
The present invention relates to a system and method for extending the coverage area and communication capacity of a spread-spectrum based wireless network through the use of intelligent repeaters. The system comprises a wireless communication network augmented with low cost channel selective repeaters that is capable of repeating only desired signals, thereby suppressing undesirable interference and increasing network capacity. The repeaters can be integrated into an existing wireless network with minimal impact to the existing network layer topology or control structure.
1 - 11 . (canceled)
12 . An intelligent radio frequency (RF) signal repeater comprising:
a first antenna subsystem that receives a first RF signal;
a first subsystem that converts the received first RF signal into a digital stream;
a second subsystem that demodulates the digital stream to retrieve communication information in the received first RF signal;
a third subsystem that reconstructs data and control channels from the retrieved communication information;
a fourth subsystem that selects one of the data channels and amplifies information therein;
a fifth subsystem that converts the amplified information into a second RF signal; and
a second antenna subsystem that transmits the second RF signal.
13 . The intelligent RF signal repeater of claim 12 , wherein the first and second antenna subsystems are high gain antenna subsystems.
14 . The intelligent RF signal repeater of claim 12 , wherein the second and third subsystems are implemented by a field program gate array (FPGA).
15 . The intelligent RF signal repeater of claim 12 , wherein the fourth subsystem is implemented by a general purpose processor.
16 . The intelligent RF signal repeater of claim 12 , further comprising an analog cancellation circuit coupled to the first subsystem and the fifth subsystem to provide signal isolation between the first and fifth subsystems.
17 . The intelligent RF signal repeater of claim 12 , further comprising a digital cancellation circuit that provides signal isolation between the first and fifth subsystems.
18 . The intelligent RF signal repeater of claim 17 , wherein the digital cancellation circuit is implemented by a field programmable gate array (FPGA).
19 . The intelligent RF signal repeater of claim 12 , further comprising an adaptive digital equalization filter that alleviate effects of channel dispersion from multipath components in the received RF signals.
20 . The intelligent RF signal repeater of claim 19 , wherein the adaptive digital equalization filter is implemented by a field programmable gate array (FPGA).