Wireless mesh network
Among other things, aspects, features, and implementations of wireless mesh networks and wireless mesh network devices are described.
1. A wireless network comprising
a repeater node connected to a donor node, the repeater node activating and performing a frame synchronization to a sampling clock and a carrier frequency of the donor node,
the repeater node comprising processors and storage for instructions executable by the processor to:
receive signals from the donor node comprising a control signal, the repeater node extracting the control signal due to the frame synchronization without decoding the signals from the donor node,
transmit signals on two or more transmit beams at different times, and
amplify and forward each signal received from the donor node using one of the transmit beams selected based on the control signal received from the donor node.
2. The wireless network of claim 1 in which the repeater transmits signals on the two or more transmit beams using an analog phased array.
3. The wireless network of claim 2 in which the control signal comprises a Downlink Control Indication (DCI) sent to an address of the repeater node.
4. The wireless network of claim 1 in which the repeater node further comprises two or more receiver beams.
5. The wireless network of claim 4 in which the repeater node receives a signal from a user device using a receiver beam selected based on a control signal received from the donor node and amplifies and forwards the signal to the donor node.
6. The wireless network of claim 1 in which the repeater node detects a random-access preamble transmission from a user device and sends a result of the preamble detection to the donor node.
7. The wireless network of claim 6 in which the preamble detection result is sent using a Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) transmission.
8. The wireless network of claim 1 in which the repeater node broadcasts a synchronization signal on multiple transmit beams on different time resources.
9. The wireless network of claim 8 in which the synchronization signal is broadcast using a synchronization signal block (SSB) burst set with the same Physical Cell ID as the donor node.
10. The wireless network of claim 9 in which the repeater node determines a transmit power of the SSB burst set based on a power of the SSB it receives from the donor node.
11. The wireless network of claim 1 , wherein the frame synchronization comprises an uplink frame synchronization based on a random access response message received from the donor node.
12. The wireless network of claim 11 in which the random access response message includes a timing advance value and an address for the repeater node.
13. The wireless network of claim 1 in which the repeater node performs uplink frame synchronization also based on signals received from user devices.
14. The wireless network of claim 1 in which the repeater node forwards a signal received from the donor node on a different orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbol based on additional control information received from the donor node.
15. The wireless network of claim 1 in which the repeater node includes a component to communicate with a management server out-of-band.
16. The wireless network of claim 15 in which the component is a long term evolution (LTE) or WiFi communication device.
17. The wireless network of claim 1 in which the repeater node includes two or more antenna panels and uses self-interference cancellation to operate in multi-panel full-duplex mode.
18. The wireless network of claim 17 in which one of the antenna panel is used for communication with the donor node and the other antenna panels are used for communication with user devices.
19. A wireless network comprising,
a donor node, and
a repeater node linked to the donor node and configured to transmit towards user devices on two or more transmit beams at different times, the repeater node linking to the donor node by performing a frame synchronization to a sampling clock and a carrier frequency of the donor node,
the donor node comprising processors and storage for instructions executable by the processors to:
establish a link between the donor node and the repeater node, and
send control information to indicate to the repeater node a beam to use when transmitting, the repeater node extracting the control signal due to the frame synchronization without decoding the signals from the donor node.
20. The wireless network of claim 19 in which the control information comprises a Downlink Control Information (DCI) sent to an address of the repeater node.
21. The wireless network of claim 20 in which the donor node assigns the address to the repeater node in a random access response message.
22. The wireless network of claim 20 in which the DCI includes information on time/frequency resources to indicate to the repeater node the time and frequency resources to use when forwarding a signal.
23. The wireless network of claim 19 in which the donor node broadcasts a system information message and the system information message includes information on random access parameters to assist a repeater node to attach to the donor node.
24. The wireless network of claim 23 in which the system information message includes information on uplink control channel resources to assist the repeater node to forward the results of random access preamble detection.
25. A wireless network comprising
a first repeater node connected to a donor node, and
a second repeater node connected to the first repeater node,
the second repeater node comprising processors and storage for instructions executable by the processor to receive signals from the donor node through the first repeater node, transmit signals on two or more transmit beams at different times, amplify and forward a signal from the donor node forwarded by the first repeater node using a transmit beam selected based on a control signal received from the donor node via the first repeater node, the repeater nodes extracting the control signal due to frame synchronizations without decoding the signals received from the donor node.
26. The wireless network of claim 25 in which the first repeater node broadcasts a system information message on multiple transmit beams on multiple time resources.
27. A distributed antenna system comprising
a donor node,
a distributed antenna system (DAS) donor node linked to the donor node, and
one or more repeater nodes linked to the DAS donor node via a point-to-multipoint transport link,
the repeater nodes comprising processors and storage for instructions executable by the processor to receive signals from the donor node via the DAS donor node, transmit signals using two or more transmit beams at different times, amplify and forward each signal received from the donor node using one of the transmit beams selected based on a control signal received from the donor node via the DAS donor node, the repeater nodes extracting the control signal due to frame synchronizations without decoding the signals received from the donor node.
28. The distributed antenna system of claim 27 in which the DAS donor node is linked to the donor node by one or more cables.
29. The distributed antenna system of claim 28 in which the DAS donor node is linked to the donor node wirelessly.
30. A wireless mesh network comprising
radio nodes connected to a core network,
mesh nodes linked to one or more radio nodes directly or through other mesh nodes,
mesh nodes configured to receive the synchronization signal of other mesh nodes on an antenna panel and to transmit a synchronization signal on other antenna panels on the same time resource, the mesh nodes and other mech nodes extracting a control signal due to the synchronization signal without decoding signals received from a donor node, and
a self-interference module to estimate and to cancel at least part of the interference of the transmitted synchronization signal to the received synchronization signal.
31. The wireless mesh network of claim 30 in which the synchronization signal comprises a synchronization signal block (SSB) burst set.
32. The wireless mesh network of claim 31 in which the mesh nodes transmit a second synchronization signal for user devices on all antenna panels on a second time resource different from the time resource.
33. A repeater node for use in a wireless mesh network, the repeater node comprising
circuitry for maintaining a wireless connection to a mesh node,
storage for instructions executable by a processor to transmit signals on two or more transmit beams at different times, and amplify and forward each signal received from the mesh node using one of the transmit beams selected based on a control signal received from the mesh node, the repeater node extracting the control signal received from the mesh node due to a frame synchronization without decoding the signals received from the mesh node.
34. A wireless network comprising,
a donor node; and
a repeater node configured to receive signals from one or more user devices on two or more receive beams at different times, the repeater node activating and performing a frame synchronization to a sampling clock and a carrier frequency of the donor node,
the donor node comprising at least one processor and storage for instructions executable by the at least one processor to cause the wireless network:
establish a link between the donor node and the repeater node, and
establish uplink frame synchronization at the repeater nod,
wherein the repeater node extracts a control signal of the donor node due to the frame synchronization without decoding signals received from the donor node.
35. The wireless network of claim 34 , wherein the uplink frame synchronization is established by:
transmitting a locally generated random access preamble from the repeater node to the donor node, and
sending, by the donor node, a timing advance to the repeater node.
36. The wireless network of claim 35 , wherein the donor node assigns the repeater node an identifier for control channel transmissions.
37. The wireless network of claim 35 , wherein the repeater node tracks changes in the uplink frame synchronization by monitoring the signals received from the one or more user devices.
38. A wireless network comprising,
a donor node; and
a repeater node configured to receive signals from one or more user devices on two or more receive beams at different times,
the donor node comprising at least one processor and storage for instructions executable by the at least one processor to cause the wireless network:
establish a link between the donor node and the repeater node,
establish a control channel link between the donor node and the repeater node using an identifier assigned to the repeater node by the donor node,
wherein the repeater node extracts a control signal of the donor node due to a frame synchronization without decoding signals received from the donor node.
39. The wireless network of claim 38 , wherein the donor node sends the repeater node a fifth generation (5G) new radio (NR) downlink control indication (DCI) using the identifier.
40. The wireless network of claim 39 , wherein the DCI includes information for the repeater node to select a transmit beam to use when forwarding data received from the donor node to the one or more user devices.
41. The wireless network of claim 39 , wherein the DCI includes information for the repeater node to select a receive beam of the two or more receive beams to use when receiving data from the one or more user devices.
42. The wireless network of claim 41 , wherein the repeater node uses control information received in the DCI to move in-phase and quadrature (IQ) data intended for a user device from one orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbol to another before forwarding the IQ data to the user device.
43. A wireless network comprising,
a donor node; and
a repeater node configured to receive signals from one or more user devices on two or more receive beams at different times,
the donor node comprising at least one processor and storage for instructions executable by the at least one processor to cause the wireless network:
establish a link between the donor node and the repeater node,
periodically transmit from the repeater node a locally generated reference signal using different narrow transmit beams in a beam scan, and
select in each user device of the one or more user devices a preferred beam based on measurements of reference signal.
44. The wireless network of claim 43 , wherein the locally generated reference signal is a fifth generation (5G) new radio (NR) synchronization signal block (SSB) and at least one of the one or more user devices is a 5G NR user device.
45. The wireless network of claim 44 , wherein the repeater node sets a transmit power level of the 5G NR SSB based on a power level received from the donor node.
46. The wireless network of claim 44 , wherein the repeater node inserts the locally generated reference signal by replacing in time domain certain in-phase and quadrature (IQ) samples received from the donor node.
47. The wireless network of claim 44 , wherein the repeater node detects and decodes a random access preamble sent by a user device of the one or more user devices.
48. The wireless network of claim 47 , wherein the repeater node sends information about the random access preamble to the donor node.