Abstract:
A system and method have been developed wherein a cylindrical antenna array is configured and reconfigured in a wireless communication network. Position and signal information are continuously received from wireless mobile units and are used to determine reconfigurations of antenna components of the cylindrical antenna array to enhance performance of the system. As such, base station antennas are dynamically configured to minimize such things as interference and dropped calls, and to maximize their voice quality both within a cell, and among neighboring cells.
Abstract:
A power control method of the invention may be applied to downlink power control, uplink power control, or both to support different quality of service levels for multiple channels per a mobile station. The power control method transmits control data between a base station and a multi-channel mobile station on a single communications channel or sub-channel to minimize or reduce overhead traffic from the control data.
Abstract:
A base station assembles a frame including information bits at a vocoding rate for downlink transmission over a traffic channel as channel bits at a channel rate. The base station places at least one rate-indicating bit at a beginning of the frame for indicating the vocoding rate. The mobile station evaluates the downlink transmission with consideration of the vocoding rate indicated by the at least one rate-indicating bit. The mobile station can determine the vocoding rate by decoding the beginning of the frame to permit power control in less than one frame duration from initial receipt of the frame at the mobile station.
Abstract:
A method and system that minimizes pilot signal overlap and radio frequency ("RF") interference by estimating changes in pilot coverage for different traffic channel loading and power conditions. Once base stations are positioned, a terminal for measuring received pilot signal strengths, such as a mobile station or pilot scanner, is used to collect and generate the baseline pilot survey data, which is then stored on a disk or tape. Base station transmit pilot E C /I O s, i.e., traffic channel loads on forward links, are also stored on disk or tape. The invention uses two adjustment factors associated with transmit power and traffic channel loading to optimize for different RF conditions, specifically for different base station transmit power or forward link loading conditions. For each RF condition, the methodology calculates the changes in the baseline pilot survey data. This reflects what E C /I O s a mobile station would receive under the given conditions. The systems engineer collects a set of optimized base station power settings for each of the different traffic channel load conditions. One of these optimized power settings is then selected by the systems engineer for each of the base stations.
Abstract:
Base station in a soft handoff is programmed to have a threshold power level to control the power transmitted by the base station on the forward link. When the threshold power level is a minimum-threshold power level, each base station maintains its transmit power level at or above the minimum-threshold power level. When the threshold power level is a maximum-threshold power level, each base station maintains its transmit power level at or below the maximum-threshold power level. Preferably, all power levels are expressed in decibels (dB) relative to the pilot's power level. The threshold power level can be adjustable or fixed. In the case where the threshold power level is fixed, each base station is programmed with the fixed threshold power level, and each base station decides how to adjust its transmit power level locally based on the fixed threshold power level without input from other base stations. In the case where the threshold power level is adjustable, the threshold power level is adjusted by a threshold step size responsive to the transmit power level being substantially equal to the threshold power level for at least a predetermined percentage of a time period. There are two alternatives on how each base station decides how to adjust its transmit power level. In one alternative, each base station participating in a soft handoff sends its power control information to a processor which adjusts the threshold power level and notifies each base station of the new adjusted threshold power level. In the meantime, each base station uses its current threshold power level to locally adjust its transmit power level. In the other alternative, each base station adjusts the threshold power level locally without input from other base stations, and uses the threshold power level to adjust its transmit power level.
Abstract:
A method and system for controlling downlink transmit power during a soft hand-off in a spread-spectrum wireless system supports independent power control of multiple forward channels to reduce fading. For a soft hand-off, a mobile switching center determines if a forward control channel is transmitted from different sectors of base stations than a forward data channel is. The base stations preferably adjust transmit powers of the forward channels grouped into different physical channels by receiving power control data over the allocated reverse power control channels to compensate for fading of the forward channels during a soft hand-off.