Integrated radio and directional antenna system

Details Integrated radio and directional antenna system Integrated radio and directional antenna system

1998-07-20

2001-07-10

Nguyen, Lee (Department: 2683)

Telecommunications

Transmitter and receiver at same station

Radiotelephone equipment detail

C455S090300, C455S348000, C455S349000, C343S702000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06259933

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of The Invention
This invention relates to wireless communication systems and, more particularly, to an integrated radio and directional antenna system and a method of making same.
2. Description of Related Art
Typically, in fixed outdoor wireless data systems, a radio frequency (RF) connection cable connects an outdoor antenna with an indoor radio. The RF connection cable introduces losses of signal between the antenna and the radio. Active antenna systems solve this problem by amplifying the signal level before the lossy cable, usually a coaxial cable. The active antenna systems require additional circuitry and a power supply line in addition to the RF signal line. As such, there is a cost associated with countering the losses introduced by the RF connection cable between the antenna and the radio.
In some systems, antenna diversity is typically provided by antenna systems where the receiver selects a particular antenna out of a set of antennas. Antenna diversity assists in coping with multipath fading of a received signal whereby the signals received by each antenna are compared, and the antenna having the better reception or the best signal quality (for example, signal-to-noise ratio) as measured by the base transceiver is selected. Typical diversity antenna systems require additional extraneous control lines and circuitry or multiple lossy coax cables which have to be run from the indoor radio or processing circuitry to the outdoor antenna unit. The additional lines and/or circuitry add costs and reduce the modularity of the antenna system.
Thus, a need exists for a system that overcomes the drawbacks of current systems in a cost effective manner.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention involves an integrated outdoor radio and directional antenna system which provides a direct RF connection(s) on the signal path between a directional antenna and radio components to remove the lossy RF cable(s). Direct connections between the various components of the integrated radio and directional antenna system enable reduced cost and ease of manufacture. In certain embodiments, the integrated directional antenna and radio system provides a direct RF connection between the directional antenna and the radio, and a printed wiring board (PWB) -mounted connector provides a direct digital connection between the radio board(s) and a medium access control (MAC) board. An input/output (I/O) interface provides a digital network interface between the MAC unit and indoor processing circuitry. The digital network interface enables packets of digital information to pass between the indoor processing circuitry and the integrated directional antenna and radio system. An external connection is made between the digital network interface and indoor processing circuitry, such as a personal computer or digital network equipment, but the losses associated with such a digital connection are less significant due to the robustness associated with the processing of digital information in a digital packet data form. In other embodiments, the integrated antenna and radio system provides a direct RF connection between the antenna and RF signal circuitry, such as an RF matrix board which accommodates polar diversity for the antenna and includes a duplexer, RF switching for multiple radios, filtering and any other appropriate RF signal circuitry. A direct RF connection also exists between the RF signal circuitry and the radio components. A direct digital connection is provided between the radio board and the MAC board, and the I/O interface provides a digital network interface with the indoor processing circuitry. In yet other embodiments, all or some of the above components described for the integrated directional antenna and radio system are integrated onto a single printed circuit board and are directly connected together and to the directional antenna.


REFERENCES:
patent: 5438697 (1995-08-01), Fowler et al.
patent: 5913174 (1998-07-01), Casarez et al.
patent: 5914693 (1999-06-01), Takei et al.
patent: 5918163 (1999-06-01), Rossi

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