Digital distributed antenna system
View Patent ↗A system may distribute radio networking traffic from a base station to one or more radio units in a bi-directional link. The system may transport the radio networking traffic over a digital network. The system may include a front-haul unit coupled to the radio units and in communication with the base station. The front-haul unit may encapsulate access signals from the base station within digital transport streams for transport over the digital network. The front-haul unit may multicast digital transport transmission streams to multiple radio units in a virtual cell. The digital transport streams may contain combined received access signals from multiple service providers in a neutral-host configuration. The radio units may map encapsulate incoming radio signals for return transport to the front-haul unit and then on the base station. The front-haul unit may transport data over the network to support wireless local area network service at the radio units.
1. A device comprising:
an antenna configured to receive an incoming signal;
radio-to-network circuitry configured to generate an incoming digital transport stream responsive to incoming signal by
sampling the incoming signal to generate a sampled incoming signal;
encapsulating the sampled incoming signal in accord with a transport protocol to generate encapsulated incoming signal data; and
adding the encapsulated incoming signal data to the incoming digital transport stream; and
network interface circuitry configured to send the incoming digital transport stream to aggregation circuitry configured to combine the incoming signal with a second incoming signal in a combined digital transport stream for transport to a base station.
2. The device of claim 1 , where the incoming digital transport stream and the combined digital transport streams comprise radio over Ethernet (RoE) transport streams.
3. The device of claim 1 , where the network interface circuitry is further configured to:
receive a data frame from a packet network; and
cause the antenna to transmit a wireless local area network (WLAN) radio signal carrying the data frame.
4. The device of claim 1 , where:
the network interface circuitry is further configured to receive a first access digital transport stream sent from the base station;
the radio-to-network circuitry is configured to extract a first access signal from the first access digital transport stream; and
the antenna is configured to transmit the first access signal.
5. The device of claim 4 , where the radio-to-network circuitry is configured to extract the first access signal by:
decapsulating a sampled access signal from the first access digital transport stream; and
reconstructing the first access signal from the sampled access signal.
6. The device of claim 4 , where:
the network interface circuitry is further configured to receive a second access digital transport stream sent from another base station;
the radio-to-network circuitry is configured to extract a second access signal from the second access digital transport stream; and
the antenna is configured to transmit the second access signal in a neutral-host configuration.
7. The device of claim 6 , where the antenna is configured to transmit the first access signal over a different frequency band from the second access signal.
8. A device comprising:
network interface circuitry comprising:
a first port configured to receive a first digital transport stream from a first radio unit, the first digital transport stream configured to carry a first sampled incoming signal;
a second port configured to receive a second digital transport stream from a second radio unit, the second digital transport stream configured to carry a second sampled incoming signal; and
a front haul port configured to establish a front haul network link to a base station; and
aggregation circuitry coupled to the network interface circuitry, the aggregation circuitry configured to:
extract the first and second sampled incoming signals from the first and second digital transport streams;
combine the first and second sampled incoming signals to generate a combined sampled incoming signal;
generate a combined digital transport stream responsive to the combined sampled incoming signal; and
cause the network interface circuitry to send the combined digital transport stream to the base station over the front haul network link.
9. The device of claim 8 , where:
the network interface circuitry further comprises a third port configured to receive a third digital transport stream from a third radio unit, the third digital transport stream configured to carry a third sampled incoming signal; and
the aggregation circuitry is configured to generate a virtual cell by:
generating a fourth digital transport stream responsive to the third sampled incoming signal; and
causing the network interface circuitry to send the fourth digital transport stream to the base station separately from the combined digital transport stream.
10. The device of claim 8 , where:
the first port is configured to receive a third digital transport stream from the first radio unit, the third digital transport stream configured to caity a third sampled incoming signal; and
the aggregation circuitry is configured to:
generate fourth digital transport stream responsive to the third sampled incoming signal; and
causing the network interface circuitry to send the fourth digital transport stream to another base station via another front haul port.
11. The device of claim 10 , where the first sampled incoming signal comprises sampling from a different radio frequency band than sampling included in the third sampled incoming signal.
12. The device of claim 8 , where the front haul port is configured to receive a fourth digital transport stream over the front haul network link, the fourth digital transport stream carrying an access sampled incoming signal.
13. The device of claim 12 , where the network interface circuitry is configured to unicast the fourth digital transport stream to the first radio unit via the first port.
14. The device of claim 12 , where the network interface circuitry is configured to multicast the fourth digital transport stream to the first and second radio unit via the first and second ports.
15. A method comprising:
exchanging signals with an antenna configured to:
transmit an access signal; and
receive an incoming signal;
extracting the access signal from an access digital transport stream sent from a base station;
sending the access signal to the antenna for transmission; and
encapsulating the incoming signal within an incoming digital transport stream for transport to aggregation circuitry, the aggregation circuitry configured to combine the incoming signal with another incoming signal within a combined digital transport stream for transport to the base station.
16. The method of claim 15 , where:
extracting the access signal comprises:
decapsulating a sampled access signal from the access digital transport stream; and reconstructing the access signal from the sampled access signal.
17. The method of claim 15 , where:
encapsulating the incoming signal comprises:
sampling the incoming signal to generate a sampled incoming signal;
encoding the sampled incoming signal into data frames for a network communication protocol; and
generating the incoming digital transport stream from the data frames.
18. The method claim 15 , further comprising:
sending the incoming digital transport stream over a packet network; and
receiving the access digital transport stream over the packet network.
19. The method of claim 18 , further comprising:
receiving data frames over the packet network; and
causing the antenna to transmit wireless local area network (WLAN) radio signals carrying the data frames.