Remotely reconfigurable distributed antenna system and methods
The present disclosure is a novel utility of a software defined radio (SDR) based Distributed Antenna System (DAS) that is field reconfigurable and support multi-modulation schemes (modulation-independent), multi-carriers, multi-frequency bands and multi-channels. The present disclosure enables a high degree of flexibility to manage, control, enhance, facilitate the usage and performance of a distributed wireless network such as flexible simulcast, automatic traffic load-balancing, network and radio resource optimization, network calibration, autonomous/assisted commissioning, carrier pooling, automatic frequency selection, frequency carrier placement, traffic monitoring, traffic tagging, pilot beacon, etc.
1. A Distributed Antenna System (DAS), comprising:
a plurality of communicatively coupled digital access units (DAUs), at least one DAU of the plurality of DAUs configured to route traffic to another DAU of the plurality of DAUs and to at least one remote radio unit (RRU), wherein one or more configurable software settings associated with the at least one DAU is used to determine which of a plurality of radio resources received from one or more signal sources are available to the another DAU and to the at least RRU; and
the at least one RRU in communication with the at least one DAU and configured to:
transmit a plurality of radio frequency (RF) signals associated with the traffic to wireless subscribers,
wherein the at least one DAU is configured to transmit the traffic to the at least one RRU.
2. The DAS of claim 1 , wherein the traffic includes cellular traffic data, and the at least one RRU is further configured to transmit a plurality of RF signals associated with cellular traffic data to the wireless subscribers.
3. The DAS of claim 1 , wherein the traffic includes IP traffic data and cellular traffic data, and the at least one RRU is further configured to:
transmit a first plurality of RF signals associated with the IP traffic data to the wireless subscribers; and
transmit a second plurality of RF signals associated with the cellular traffic data to the wireless subscribers.
4. The DAS of claim 1 , wherein the traffic includes IP traffic data and cellular traffic data, and the at least one DAU is configured to transmit the traffic to the at least one RRU via a communication path shared between the IP traffic data and the cellular traffic data.
5. The DAS of claim 1 , wherein the at least one DAU is configured to receive the traffic from a base transceiver station (BTS) via an RF connection, a repeater, or an optical connection.
6. The DAS of claim 1 , wherein a first RF signal of the plurality of RF signals includes a first plurality of carriers, and a second RF signal of the plurality of RF signals includes a second plurality of carriers, and wherein a number of the first plurality of carriers is different than a number of the second plurality of carriers.
7. A system comprising:
a plurality of communicatively coupled Digital Access Units (DAUs), at least one DAU of the plurality of DAUs configured to: route traffic to another DAU of the plurality of DAUs and to at least one Remote Radio Unit (RRU), wherein one or more configurable software settings associated with the at least one DAU is used to determine which of a plurality of radio resources received from one or more signal sources are available to the another DAU and to the at least RRU; and
wherein the at least one RRU is in communication with the at least one DAU and configured to:
transmit a plurality of radio frequency (RF) signals associated with the traffic to wireless subscribers,
wherein the at least one DAU is configured to transmit the traffic to the at least one RRU.
8. The system of claim 7 , wherein the traffic includes cellular traffic data, and the at least one RRU is further configured to transmit a plurality of RF signals associated with cellular traffic data to the wireless subscribers.
9. The system of claim 7 , wherein the traffic includes IP traffic data and cellular traffic data, and the at least one RRU is further configured to:
transmit a first plurality of RF signals associated with the IP traffic data to the wireless subscribers; and
transmit a second plurality of RF signals associated with the cellular traffic data to the wireless subscribers.
10. The system of claim 7 , wherein the traffic includes IP traffic data and cellular traffic data, and the at least one DAU is configured to transmit the traffic to the at least one RRU via a communication path shared between the IP traffic data and the cellular traffic data.
11. The system of claim 7 , wherein the at least one DAU is configured to receive the traffic from a Base Transceiver Station (BTS) via an RF connection, a repeater, or an optical connection.
12. The system of claim 7 , wherein a first RF signal of the plurality of RF signals includes a first plurality of carriers, and a second RF signal of the plurality of RF signals includes a second plurality of carriers, and wherein a number of the first plurality of carriers is different than a number of the second plurality of carriers.
13. A system comprising:
a plurality of Remote Radio Units (RRUs); and
a plurality of communicatively coupled Digital Access Units (DAUs), at least one DAU of the plurality of DAUs configured to: route traffic to another DAU of the plurality of DAUs and to route traffic to at least one Remote Radio Unit (RRU) of the plurality of RRUs,
wherein one or more configurable software settings associated with the at least one DAU is used to determine which of a plurality of radio resources received from one or more signal sources are available to the another DAU and to the at least RRU, and
wherein the at least one RRU is communicatively coupled to and receives traffic from the at least one DAU and configured to transmit a plurality of radio frequency (RF) signals associated with the traffic to one or more wireless subscribers.