Telecommunications – Radiotelephone system – Special service
Reexamination Certificate
2000-09-18
2004-02-10
Tran, Sinh (Department: 2681)
Telecommunications
Radiotelephone system
Special service
C455S414200, C455S415000, C455S416000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06690933
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to connecting a network to one or more radio frequency channels. More specifically, the invention relates to connecting a telephone network to one or more radio frequency channels.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Refer to FIG.
1
. The use of telephone service has dramatically increased as a result of the popularity of the Internet. In addition to a single telephone line for voice conversation, it is increasingly common to find homes with multiple phone lines
135
, so that the second fine can be used for business or for Internet access.
Wire line residential phone service essentially means connecting a twisted pair of wires
110
originating in the central office of the telephone company to a physical wired circuit, connected to a number of wired phones in the residence
115
. These twisted pairs are packaged in bundles of up to several thousand wires, attached to a switch through a wiring frame in the central office and these large bundles are then attached from telephone pole
120
to telephone pole through the neighborhoods. Outside a given residence the particular pair of wires that provide service to that residence is exited from the bundle and brought to the house, where it is attached to the in-house wiring. Once the twisted pair is attached to the in-house wiring, it may be connected to a traditional, wired telephone
125
, as is manufactured by Southwestern Bell, GE or Sony.
Cordless phones are terminal devices attached to the existing land line (wired) networks of today. Two devices comprise a cordless phone
130
: a base unit and a handset. The base unit connects directly to one or two wired lines of the existing network and extends them by radio to the handset. The cordless phone provides total transparency, viz: the land line network does not know that it is terminated in a cordless phone rather than a traditional wired telephone set. The base unit's main functions are to provide a full-duplex audio channel between the land line and the handset, and an interface between the wired network signaling and appropriate devices in the handset such as the switch hook, the bell (alerting device), and the dial pad. Various methods are used in cordless phones to provide security, meaning protection against unauthorized use of the land line channels, and privacy, meaning protection from eavesdropping. Cordless phones are typically sold in base-handset pairs which can be set to one of several code-patterns by the consumer, usually by means of a multi-contact switch bank. The radio-frequency sections of cordless phones are low-power and with the exception of high-end units which use spread-spectrum frequency-hopping techniques as a security means, they are not frequency-agile, meaning they do not change frequency during a call. In particular, cordless phones do not use frequency agility as a means of improving the switching functions or services of the networks to which they are connected.
Cellular telephone systems, while cordless, are substantially different from cordless telephone sets. Cellular telephone handsets are both frequency-mobile and power-mobile, and are constantly supervised by the cell controller. They use many more frequencies than cordless telephones. The fundamental feature of cellular systems is to provide mobility of the handsets over wide areas, even hundreds of miles. It is not possible to provide sufficient RF power to cover wide areas, and there are insufficient assigned frequencies to serve the number of users on a frequency-per-user basis. As a result, cellular telephony divides all geography into relatively small “cells”, each with a central antenna
140
, using a subset of all frequencies, allowing low-power communications with handsets
145
, inside the cell boundary. Each cell adjacent to a given cell will use a different subset of frequencies (
146
,
147
), and cells a short distance away can reuse the same frequencies because of the low RF power used in the cells. The control system for cellular telephone systems is extremely complex. Each cell controller continually monitors the signal strength of all handsets in its own cell and in adjacent cells, so when a handset moves into the boundary between two cells, both cell controllers know where the handset is and in what direction it is moving. At the appropriate moment a “hand-off” occurs during which the cell controllers instruct the handset to change to a frequency that is used in the cell it is entering. At the same time the land line connection is changed from the old cell to the new cell, providing continuity for the voice connection.
To provide wireless data access in well trafficked areas such as hotels and airports, firms such as MobileStar (http://www.mobilestar.com) provide publicly accessible wireless LANs. These allow subscribers, equipped with the appropriate passwords, hardware and software for their laptops, to communicate through wireless LAN techniques, and through a gateway and router to their corporate LANs and the Internet. The wireless access point in the airport or hotel is generally provisioned with a broadband (T
1
or above) wired channel to the network. These facilities are shared rather than dedicated, with the routers functioning to transfer packets to their appropriate destinations.
PROBLEMS WITH THE PRIOR ART
Installation and maintenance of traditional wired telephony service from the pole or post to the structure and then within the structure to the telephone instrument(s) is a labor intensive operation. To install service it is necessary to dispatch personnel to the site. When service failures occur it is also often necessary to dispatch maintenance personnel (“roll the truck”) to the house in order to examine the wiring, and repair it. This is expensive, time consuming and requires coordination with the residents to ensure that someone will be home.
To provide standard wired telephone service, outside a given residence the particular pair of wires that provide service to that residence is exited from the bundle and brought to the house, where it is attached to the in-house wiring. When additional service is required previously unused pairs must be employed. If there is not an unused pair which has already been brought to the house from the bundle, then an additional pair must be brought in. Again this requires maintenance personnel, on-site labor, and coordination with the residents. If there are no unused pairs available to bring to the house, this can cause significant delay to the resident requesting the new service, and expense to the telephone company which may have to provide new capacity to the area.
Telephones inside the home may be wired or wireless, with wireless phones requiring a dedicated base station. These are generally more expensive than wired phones, since they contain additional dedicated hardware required to communicate through radio frequencies with the handset. Further, these phones draw more power than a plain old wired telephone, and generally require power drawn from a different electrical system (e.g. home electrical wiring). In order to provide service during power failures, these must have battery backups.
Additionally, wireless phones share a disadvantage of wired phones connected to the same pair; that is, that a conversation held on one wireless handset is audible to anyone listening on another telephone, wire line or wireless, connected to the same pair. With existing systems, there is no way to guarantee privacy of conversation when multiple phones are connected to the same pair.
With a dedicated pair, the user is guaranteed a connection path to the central office. With that dedicated pair, and traditional phone service, the user is guaranteed only one connection path to the central office. There is no additional capacity available on a temporary, ad hoc, basis. For example, if someone is using the phone for a voice conversation or a computer connection, no outbound or inbound calls can be established. PBXs, e.g. as used by hotels, have a similar problem. Frequently, hotels serving la
Chapman, Jr. Robert Ellis
Stern Edith Helen
Willner Barry E.
Cameron Douglas W.
Dougherty Anne V.
International Business Machines - Corporation
Nguyen Huy
Percello Louis J.
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