Abstract:
An apparatus and method are provided for improving connectivity for items of user equipment in a wireless network. The apparatus has a first antenna system for providing a first sector of a telecommunications network, and a second antenna system for providing a second sector of the telecommunications network. Further, the apparatus has a third antenna system for communicating with a base station of the telecommunications network to provide a first wireless backhaul path for the first and second sectors. In addition, a fourth antenna system is used to provide a wireless communication link to facilitate coupling of the apparatus into a mesh network of devices. The mesh network has at least one point of access into the telecommunications network such that the mesh network supports provision of at least one further wireless backhaul path for the first and second sectors. Backhaul management circuitry is then arranged, in at least one mode of operation, to control utilisation of the third antenna system and the fourth antenna system to provide backhaul connectivity to the telecommunications network for at least items of user equipment connected to the apparatus via the first and second antenna systems. Through the use of such an apparatus, it has been found that significant improvements in network coverage can be readily obtained, and further the overall spectral efficiency of the network can be enhanced to improve network capacity, with the backhaul management circuitry maintaining an efficient backhaul connection through the combined use of the first wireless backhaul path and at least one further wireless backhaul path supported via the mesh network.
Abstract:
An antenna apparatus operates as a base station in a wireless network with spatial nulling performed within such apparatus. The apparatus has an antenna assembly employing a selected reception beam pattern. During a nulling test, a reception beam pattern controller causes the assembly to employ each reception beam pattern. Quality metric determination circuitry determines for each reception beam pattern a link quality metric for each of several wireless terminals, based on communication between those wireless terminals and the base station while the assembly employs that reception beam pattern. Reception beam determination circuitry determines, from the various link quality metrics, a reception beam pattern from the reception beam patterns for use for subsequent communication with the wireless terminals. A reception beam pattern can be altered seeking to reduce interference source effects and to maintain an appropriate level of link quality regarding each wireless terminal communicating with the base station.
Abstract:
An antenna apparatus for use in a wireless network and method of operating such an antenna apparatus are provided. The antenna apparatus has omnidirectional antenna elements and RF chains, where there are fewer RF chains than omnidirectional antenna elements. A subset of the omnidirectional antenna elements are coupled to the RF chains and sampling circuitry coupled to the RF chains samples the signals received by the subset of the omnidirectional antenna elements. This forms part of a signal detection process in which different subsets of the omnidirectional antenna elements are iteratively coupled to the RF chains. A signal sample spatial covariance matrix for the omnidirectional antenna elements is constructed from the signals sampled by the sampling circuitry at each iteration and a beamforming algorithm applied to the signal sample spatial covariance matrix parameterises the signals received by the omnidirectional antenna elements.
Abstract:
Antenna apparatus and a method of operating the antenna apparatus are provided. The antenna apparatus comprises a directional antenna comprising antenna array components, RF chains connected to the antenna array components, and a transceiver connected to the RF chains. Each RF chain comprises in sequence: a switching stage having switching circuitry selectively to connect an antenna array component, a phase shifting stage having phase shifting circuitry, and a summation stage having summation circuitry, wherein at least two of the RF chains share phase shifting circuitry and at least two of the RF chains share summation circuitry. The at least partial sharing of the RF chains, an in particular of the phase shifting circuitry provides a compact and cheap antenna apparatus, which is nonetheless capable of degree of configurability in direction and beam pattern to enable it to operate in a busy and changing environment.
Abstract:
There is provided an apparatus comprising a location receiver to receive a signal indicative of a location of the location receiver. A movement mechanism rotates the location receiver about an axis and provides an angle of the location receiver about the axis from a known point. Calculation circuitry produces an output value indicative of an absolute bearing of the known point about the axis, based on a plurality of given angles of the location receiver about the axis from the known point, and a plurality of associated locations of the location receiver indicated by the signal received when the location receiver is at each of the given angles.
Abstract:
A communications schedule routes data between relay nodes forming a wireless relay network and interconnects relay nodes by an ordered sequence of communications links established over a wireless resource comprising resource blocks. Candidate connectivity patterns for the ordered sequence of communications links and candidate resource allocations are provided. For each candidate connectivity pattern, a level of a performance characteristic is calculated for a selected combination of the candidate resource allocations. Based on a desired level of the performance characteristic, a candidate connectivity pattern and associated selected combination of candidate resource allocations whose calculated level of the performance characteristic meets the desired level, is selected as the communications schedule. In response to a trigger condition, the performance level evaluation process and the selection process are repeated to re-select one of the candidate connectivity patterns and its associated selected combination of candidate resource allocations to be used as the communications schedule.
Abstract:
A data processing apparatus, and in particular to a data processing apparatus for use in a telecommunications system is disclosed which seeks to provide an improved technique for handling asynchronous events in a synchronous processing environment. The data processing apparatus comprises a data processing unit operable to process data from a synchronous data stream. The data processing apparatus also comprises conversion logic operable to receive an asynchronous event for processing by the data processing unit, the conversion logic being further operable to create event data representing the asynchronous event for transmission in the synchronous data stream. Providing conversion logic which converts an asynchronous event into event data transmissible within the synchronous data stream enables the data processing unit, when operating in a synchronous environment, to handle the asynchronous event in the same manner as any other synchronous data it may receive. Hence, the operation of the data processing unit can be effectively decoupled from the asynchronous event, the occurrence of which may undesirably affect the performance of the data processing unit.
Abstract:
An apparatus and method are provided for performing a handover analysis for a moving vehicle which may be part of an air-to-ground (A2G) communication network. The apparatus comprises base station location identifying circuitry 1535 to obtain base station location information for a plurality of base stations that provide a wireless network for communication with a moving vehicle. In addition, moving vehicle tracking circuitry 1540 is provided to obtain position and velocity information for the moving vehicle. Handover metrics computation circuitry 1545 is then used to generate at least one handover metric computed from the position and velocity information for the moving vehicle and the base station location information, for use in determining a target base station in said plurality to be used when performing a handover procedure to transition communication with the moving vehicle from the current base station in said plurality to the target base station. The handover metric may comprise a Doppler effect metric, an uplink capacity metric or an antenna gain metric.
Abstract:
A node and method are described for providing more flexible access to a wireless network. The node has scanning circuitry for performing a scanning operation to detect one or more wireless backhaul nodes and a performance characteristic associated with each of the one or more wireless backhaul nodes. This scanning operation is performed for each of a plurality of antenna directions. Filter circuitry is also provided to store a reference to the one or more wireless backhaul nodes, a value of the performance characteristic associated with the one or more wireless backhaul nodes, and an antenna position during the scanning operation, which are stored in a candidate list on the basis of a condition. The node also comprises data processing circuitry to select a selected wireless backhaul node from the candidate list based on the performance characteristic.