Telecommunications – Carrier wave repeater or relay system – Two separate way transmission
Reexamination Certificate
1997-05-01
2001-09-04
Trost, William (Department: 2683)
Telecommunications
Carrier wave repeater or relay system
Two separate way transmission
C455S011100, C379S056200
Reexamination Certificate
active
06285857
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to telecommunications systems, and more particularly to telecommunications systems which can provide a wide range of services without the need for hard-wired connections to the end users of the system.
Traditional telecommunications systems rely heavily on hard-wired connections all the way to the end points of the system. For example, traditional telephone systems employ twisted pair wiring to each home, office, or other location served by the system. Traditional cable television systems similarly employ coaxial cable or optical fiber to each end user of the system. Such extensive hard-wired networks are extremely costly to install and maintain. A new service provider who is restricted to such technologies must therefore make an enormous capital investment in hard-wired plant before that provider can even begin to extend service to a new area. Existing technologies such as twisted pair wire or coaxial cable also have limited service capabilities. Upgrading such hard-wired connections (e.g., to optical fiber) to offer more services is very expensive even for the owner of the network.
In view of the foregoing, a need exists for new ways for telecommunications services providers to gain access to end users of such services. Such new access should be of lower cost than traditional hard-wired connections, and should also have greater capacity than such traditional technologies as twisted pair wire and even coaxial cable.
It is therefore an object of this invention to provide telecommunications systems which allow access to end users of the system without the need for hard-wired connections to those users.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
This and other objects of the invention are accomplished in accordance with the principles of the invention by providing telecommunications systems which employ substantially unguided, point-to-point, free-space, electro-magnetic (i.e., optical or microwave) communication between area access points and end users in that area. For example, an area may be served from one or more area access points, each having a transceiver for bi-directional, free-space, line-of-sight, electro-magnetic communication with one or more nearby relay points. Each of these relay points has at least two transceivers, one of which is for the above-mentioned communication with the associated area access point, and the other of which is for similar bi-directional, free-space, line-of-sight, electro-magnetic communication with another nearby relay point or end point. An end point is similar to a relay point except that an end point has only one transceiver. Relay point and end point transceivers may be located on the roofs of houses in the neighborhood served from the above-mentioned area access point(s). Users of the system may be located at any relay point or end point.
Preferably at least a fraction of the relay points are reachable via more than one path through the network of relay points. In this way, if line-of-sight communication between two relay points is temporarily broken, service can still be provided through other relay points.
In addition to the above-described line-of-sight communication between the area access points, relay points, and end points, broadcast radio frequency communication is preferably provided between these points for such purposes as (1) helping to initially set up the system for line-of-sight communication and (2) backup communication for at least some services in the event of failure of the line-of-sight communication. It is contemplated that radio frequency communication will be needed for these purposes only infrequently. However, some of the radio frequency communication apparatus provided for the above purposes can also be used to provide wireless (e.g., mobile, cullular, and/or cordless) communication service in the area served by the system. For example, each relay point and end point can be the antenna in the center of a small cellular communictations cell.
The capacity of the line-of-sight communications network described above can be very high, thereby enabling the system to provide a wide range of services. Such services may include basic telephone service, high density mobile telephone service (e.g., as described at the end of the preceding paragraph), video service (analogous to CATV service), high-speed bi-directional digital data service, digital television service, etc.
Although it is anticipated that most of the line-of-sight communications links in networks constructed in accordance with this invention will be provided by light, point-to-point microwave links can be used either in place of or as backup for some optical links. For example, microwave links may be used for connections that are longer than can conveniently be made optically. Or particularly important optical links may be backed up with microwave in case extremely bad weather interferes with optical communication.
At least some of the transceivers used for the bi-directional, free-space, line-of-sight, electro-magnetic communication may be repositionable, e.g., to correct for misalignments and/or to completely redirect the transceiver for communication with any one of a plurality of other area access points, relay points, and/or end points. Such repositioning may be at least partly controlled using data about the locations of the various points in the system. This location data may be at least partly determined using a global positioning system.
Further features of the invention, its nature and various advantages, will be more apparent from the accompanying drawings and the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments.
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AT&T Corp.
Gesesse Tilahun
Trost William
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