Channel-based remote unit monitoring and optimization in a wireless communications system (WCS)

1. A wireless communications system (WCS), comprising:

a plurality of remote units;

a digital routing unit (DRU) comprising a signal routing circuit, the DRU coupled to the plurality of remote units via a plurality of communications mediums, respectively, and configured to:

distribute a plurality of downlink communications signals to the plurality of remote units via the plurality of communications mediums, respectively;

receive a plurality of uplink communications signals from the plurality of remote units via the plurality of communications mediums, respectively; and

generate a plurality of communications signals based on the plurality of uplink communications signals, wherein each of the plurality of communications signals corresponds to a signal channel and a remote unit among the plurality of remote units communicating on the signal channel;

a signal processing circuit comprising a signal input and a plurality of cell processing circuits; and

a remote unit control circuit, comprising:

a channel selection circuit comprising a signal output communicatively coupled to the signal input of the signal processing circuit, the channel selection circuit configured to receive the plurality of communications signals; and

a control circuit comprising a control output, the control circuit configured to:

cause the channel selection circuit to provide at least one selected communications signal among the plurality of communications signals to the signal output;

receive at least one performance report corresponding to the at least one selected communications signal from the signal processing circuit; and

provide the at least one performance report to the control output.

2. The WCS of claim 1 , wherein the channel selection circuit is provided in the signal routing circuit.

3. The WCS of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of communications signals is associated with a plurality of signal identifiers, respectively, each of the plurality of signal identifiers configured to uniquely identify the signal channel and the remote unit communicating a respective communications signal among the plurality of communications signals on the signal channel.

4. The WCS of claim 1 , wherein the control circuit is further configured to cause the signal processing circuit to couple a selected cell processing circuit among the plurality of cell processing circuits to the signal input to receive the at least one selected communications signal.

5. The WCS of claim 4 , wherein the selected cell processing circuit is configured to:

receive the at least one selected communications signal from the signal input;

determine one or more performance attributes corresponding to the at least one selected communications signal;

generate the at least one performance report comprising the one or more performance attributes; and

provide the at least one performance report to the control circuit.

6. The WCS of claim 5 , wherein the one or more performance attributes comprise at least one key performance indicator (KPI) selected from the group consisting of: signal strength, channel bandwidth, physical resource block (PRB) utilization, noise level, signal to noise ratio (SNR), user equipment (UE) identification, and UE channel information.

7. The WCS of claim 5 , wherein the selected cell processing circuit is further configured to:

determine at least one selected location information relating to at least one selected remote unit associated with the at least one selected communications signal; and

generate the at least one performance report comprising the at least one selected location information.

8. The WCS of claim 4 , wherein the plurality of cell processing circuits is configured to:

receive a plurality of combined downlink communications signals;

provide the plurality of combined downlink communications signals to the signal routing circuit;

receive a plurality of combined uplink communications signals from the signal routing circuit; and

provide the plurality of combined uplink communications signals.

9. The WCS of claim 8 , wherein the control circuit is further configured to cause the signal processing circuit to determine the selected cell processing circuit as being a cell processing circuit among the plurality of cell processing circuits dedicated to generating the at least one performance report.

10. The WCS of claim 8 , wherein the control circuit is further configured to cause the signal processing circuit to determine the selected cell processing circuit as being a cell processing circuit among the plurality of cell processing circuits having a processing load below a determined load threshold.

11. The WCS of claim 5 , wherein the control circuit is further configured to:

provide a first control signal to the channel selection circuit to cause the channel selection circuit to provide the at least one selected communications signal to the signal output; and

provide a second control signal to the signal processing circuit to cause the signal processing circuit to couple the selected cell processing circuit to the signal input to receive the at least one selected communications signal.

12. The WCS of claim 8 , wherein the signal routing circuit comprises:

a channel separation circuit configured to:

receive the plurality of uplink communications signals from the plurality of remote units, respectively; and

generate the plurality of communications signals based on the plurality of uplink communications signals;

a signal distribution circuit configured to receive and provide the plurality of communications signals to the channel selection circuit; and

a plurality of signal combiners configured to:

generate the plurality of combined uplink communications signals based on the plurality of communications signals; and

provide the plurality of combined uplink communications signals to the plurality of cell processing circuits.

13. The WCS of claim 1 , further comprising a remote unit optimization circuit communicatively coupled to the control output and the plurality of remote units, the remote unit optimization circuit configured to:

receive the at least one performance report from the control output; and

optimize at least one selected remote unit among the plurality of remote units based on the at least one performance report.

14. The WCS of claim 13 , wherein the remote unit optimization circuit is further configured to optimize a selected signal source and/or the DRU in the WCS based on the at least one performance report.

15. The WCS of claim 13 , wherein the remote unit optimization circuit is further configured to receive the at least one performance report from the signal processing circuit.

16. The WCS of claim 1 , wherein the control circuit further comprises a remote unit optimization circuit configured to:

receive the at least one performance report from the control output; and

optimize at least one selected remote unit based on the at least one performance report.

17. The WCS of claim 1 corresponding to a centralized radio access network (RAN).

18. The WDS of claim 1 , wherein the DRU is coupled to the plurality of remote units via a plurality of optical fiber communications mediums, respectively, wherein:

the DRU is further configured to:

receive a plurality of radio frequency (RF) downlink communications signals;

convert the plurality of RF downlink communications signals into a plurality of optical downlink communications signals, respectively;

distribute the plurality of optical downlink communications signals to the plurality of remote units via the plurality of optical fiber communications mediums, respectively;

receive a plurality of optical uplink communications signals from the plurality of remote units via the plurality of optical fiber communications mediums, respectively; and

convert the plurality of optical uplink communications signals into a plurality of RF uplink communications signals, respectively; and

the plurality of remote units is further configured to:

receive the plurality of optical downlink communications signals via the plurality of optical fiber communications mediums, respectively;

convert the plurality of optical downlink communications signals into the plurality of RF downlink communications signals, respectively;

receive the plurality of RF uplink communications signals;

convert the plurality of RF uplink communications signals into the plurality of optical uplink communications signals, respectively; and

provide the plurality of optical uplink communications signals to the DRU via the plurality of optical fiber communications mediums, respectively.