(12) United States Patent (10) Patent No.: US 6,738,641 B1

Transcription

1 UOO B1 (12) United tate Patent (10) Patent No.: U 6,738,641 B1 Elaer (45) Date of Patent: May 18, 2004 (54) DITRIBUTED TRANCEIVER FOR 6,366,771 B1 * 4/2002 Angle et al /414.1 WIRELE COMMUNICATION YTEM 6,377,782 B1 * 4/2002 Bihop et al /3.01 6,463,051 B1 10/2002 Ford /352 (75) Inventor: Gary Elaer, Coto De Caza, CA (U) 6,483,470 B1 * 11/2002 Hohntein et al /721 6,587,479 B1 * 7/2003 Bianchi et al /487 (73) Aignee: Tohiba America Information ytem, Inc., Irvine, CA (U) (*) Notice: ubject to any diclaimer, the term of thi patent i extended or adjuted under 35 U..C. 154(b) by 506 day. (21) Appl. No.: 09/721,471 (22) Filed: Nov. 22, 2000 * cited by examiner Primary Examiner Nay Maung Aitant Examiner Alan T. Gantt (74) Attorney, Agent, or Firm- Pillbury Winthrop LLP (57) ABTRACT A ditributed tranceiver for wirele communication ytem (Under 37 CFR 1.47) providing acce to a public data communication network i (51) Int. Cl.... H04B 700 dicloed. A plurality of RF acce point are poitioned in (52) U.. Cl /523; 455/414; 455/3.05; a premie to provide ervice coverage for mobile wirele 455/564; 370/352 according to a local wirele communication protocol. Each (58) Field of earch /523, 3.01, of the RF acce point i coupled to a central controller by 455/3.05, 550.1, 564, 414; 370/352 a cable to permit tranmiion of a low voltage DC power ignal to the RF acce point and tranmiion of uplink and (56) Reference Cited downlink ignal between the central controller and the RF acce point. U.. PATENT DOCUMENT 5,920,818 A * 7/1999 Frodigh et al / Claim, 2 Drawing heet

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3 U.. Patent May 18, 2004 heet 2 of 2 U 6,738,641 B1.. E o C y d y t m r -d \O O -1 a

4 1 DITRIBUTED TRANCEIVER FOR WIRELE COMMUNICATION YTEM BACKGROUND 1. Field of the Invention Embodiment decribed herein are directed to wirele communication ytem. In particular, embodiment relate to a ytem for communication with portable device. 2. Related Art A improvement in technology reult in maller, lighter, and more portable computing device, a wide variety of new application and uer continue to emerge. Uer do not only operate uch device in tand-alone mode. Intead, with portability uer may alo require the ability to end and receive information through uch device at any location. The need to communicate further arie in circumtance where hard-wired link may not be readily available or practical or when the uer of the portable computing device cannot be reached immediately. Moreover, a reult of uer mobility i that the precie location of the uer i often variable or not determined. Commercially available peronal computer or other imilar device are generally equipped with indutry tan dard communication port for driving a peripheral device uch a a printer, a pointing device, or a modem. While operating in an unknown, remote location not connected to a network, the portable peronal computer uer may be unaware of meage awaiting him. In addition, conventionally, a uer wait until reaching an office or other place with appropriate equipment to receive uch meage and to tranmit or print document or other information prepared by the uer on hi peronal device. The evolution of communication tandard uch a Blue tooth and IEEE ha enabled the deployment of multiple tranceiver at public location or buine etab lihment which provide wirele acce point to the Inter net. Accordingly, cutomer with mobile client device may etablih communication with point on the Internet upon being within tranmiion range of one of the acce point. A public location or buine location offering uch Internet acce to cutomer may deploy everal acce point to provide effective coverage over a premie. Each acce point typically conit of a tranceiver, a power ource and a phyical connection to an Internet gateway. uch a deployment of multiple acce point i cotly. There i, therefore, a need for a more cot effective ytem and method of providing acce to the Internet with mobile device over an effective coverage area at a premie. BRIEF DECRIPTION OF THE FIGURE FIG. 1 i a block diagram illutrating the overall ditrib uted tranceiver for wirele communication ytem accord ing to an embodiment. FIG. 2 i a block diagram of the compoition of a ditributed tranceiver, according to the ytem of FIG. 1. DETAILED DECRIPTION Embodiment of the preent invention relate to a ditrib uted tranceiver for wirele communication ytem that provide Internet acce and other ervice in variou private and public location. In one embodiment, a central unit poee an Ethernet connection directly to the Internet or to a backbone witch and a ditributed tranceiver. U 6,738,641 B FIG. 1 illutrate a ditributed tranceiver for wirele communication ytem, deignated 2, according to an embodiment of the preent invention. A mobile unit ( MU ) 4 uch a a notebook computer, peronal computer ( PC ), peronal digital aitant ("PDA"), cell phone, pager, or a imilar portable device include an antenna 8. The MU 4 i capable of communicating with point on a digital commu nicator network uing local acce wirele communication protocol according to the Bluetooth or IEEE tandard, or other uitable tandard for communicating with point on a digital communication network. Bluetooth i a high-peed, hort-range, low-power micro wave wirele link technology deigned to connect variou type of device uch a laptop, cellphone, pager, PDA, and other portable equipment together with little or no work by the uer. Bluetooth device can communicate by wirele ignal within a 35-foot range, and do not need a line-of ight connection. The Bluetooth technology ue modifica tion of exiting wirele local area network ( WLAN ) technique which enable communication according to an Internet Protocol (IP). In a imilar fahion, IEEE i the tandard for WLAN, capable of pecifying an over the air interface between a wirele client and a bae tation or acce point, a well a among wirele client. The Media Acce Control ( MAC) under i compoed of everal functional block that include mechanim to provide contention and contention-free acce control on a variety of phyical layer. The MAC layer i upported by an underlying Phyical ( PHY") layer that include diffued infra-red ( DFIR ), direct equence pread pectrum ( D ), and frequency hopped pread pectrum ("FH ). Both pread pectrum technique are ued in the 2.4 GHz band becaue of wide availability in many countrie and lower hardware cot in comparion to the higher microwave frequencie. In the illutrated embodiment, the local acce wirele communication protocol facilitate cable-free connection to a data communication network uch a the Internet 12 in variou private/public environment 14 uch a hotel, con ference center, airport, airplane, train tation, train, retaurant, coffee hop, and imilar etablihment. By aturating the environment 14 with wirele connectivity according to the local acce wirele communication pro tocol and enabling the MU 4 to communicate according to thi protocol, a cutomer may acce point on the Internet 12 upon moving to within range of the DT 6. A client uer equipped with an MU 4 may enter a premie. If thi environment 14 i populated with a DT 6, the client uer may activate hi MU 4 and communicate with point on the Internet 12. A traveler in a foreign country may experience difficultie in making a ucceful connection becaue of varying jack and poibly the unavailability of wired connection. Blue tooth ha a low enough power uch that it may be ued in uch a foreign locale to form a bridge to a wired network either directly inide a building or to a cellphone. According to an embodiment, an infratructure i alo in place uch that Internet 12 acce may be available regardle of an indi vidual device configuration. A previouly dicued, MU 4 i connected to antenna 8. DT 6 i alo connected to an antenna 10 that can both receive and tranmit radio frequency ( RF) ignal at deignated tranmit and receive frequency band. RF ignal over the air from DT 6 are received by antenna 8 and ent to MU 4. FIG. 2 illutrate the compoition of a DT 6 according to an embodiment. The DT 6 may include an appliance erver

5 3 ( A ) 102. A 102 i a wirele acce erver that contain a power upply 104, one or more Ethernet controller 106, and a digital ignal proceor ( DP ) 108. Alo included within A 102 i a proceor 110 having logic uch a, but not limited to, Network Addre Tranlation ( NAT") logic and Dynamic Hot Configuration Protocol ( DHCP) logic. The DT 6 alo include one or more RF acce point 114. Each RF acce point 114 i coupled to the DP 108 and power upply 8 through a cable. The RF acce point 114 may be ditributed throughout the environment 14 to pro vide RF coverage for MU 4 at point in the environment 14. Each RF acce point 114 include an antenna (not hown) and RF front end circuitry for tranmitting uplink ignal received from the MU 4 to the DP, and tranmitting downlink ignal from the DP 108 to the MU 4 according to the local acce wirele communication protocol. The DP 108 may include combination of AIC logic and micro controller executing micro code intruction. The DP 108 may demodulate RF ignal received from the acce point 114 to provide digital data tranmitted in the uplink ignal and modulate digital data from the proceor 110 for tranmiion to the acce point 114 a the downlink ignal. The DP 108 may be calable to communicate with any number of acce point 114. For example, the DP 108 may include a eparate mixed ignal integrated circuit (not hown) for each acce point 114 coupled to a ingle hub controller (not hown) for communication with the proce or 110. Alternatively, the uplink tranmiion from the acce point 114 may be multiplexed to a ingle point at the DP8 to be demodulated while the DP 108 demultiplexe and modulate the downlink tranmiion from the proce or 110 for tranmiion through the acce point 114. The Ethernet controller 106 may couple the proceor 110 to an Internet gateway proceor (not hown) for commu nicating with point on the Internet 12. Accordingly, tran miion at each of the acce point 114 may acce the Internet 12 through a ingle Ethernet controller 106. A NAT gateway may be employed to reduce the requirement for publicly aigned Internet Protocol ("IP") addree, expand an exiting network without affecting exiting IP baed account cheme, and hide an internal network chema from public network. DHCP i a protocol that allow network adminitrator to manage centrally and automate the aignment of IP addree in a network. The DHCP may eliminate the need for aigning a new IP addre when an MU 4 move to a location in another part of a network. DHCP further upport tatic addree for proceor hoting web erver that require a permanent IP addre. NAT and DHCP require proceing reource which may be built into A 102 to compoe a kind of networking intelligence. A low DC power conumption along with the elimination of a eparate DP, memory, and Ethernet controller may further reult in a low cot of intallation for the ditributed tranceiver for wirele communication ytem 2. A 102 i coupled to cable 112, which may be category fire cable having eight wire. In the illutrated embodiment, four of the wire tranmit low voltage (e.g., between about 5.0 and 15.0 volt) DC power from the P 104 an RF acce point 114. The remaining four wire tranmit RF ignal bi-directionally between the DP 108 and the RF acce point 114. High level proceing i performed, however, at the proceor 110 to facilitate communication according to the aforementioned communication protocol. A 102 may further be connected to a backbone 116 a part of a local area network. The backbone 116 may provide U 6,738,641 B high-peed Internet 12 acce through the A 102. The backbone 116 may alo provide acce through RF acce point 114 coupled to the Internet 12 through a lave controller 118. Here, the lave controller 118 may tranmit low voltage DC power to the coupled RF acce point 114 and enable bi-directional communication through an eight wire category five cable a dicued above. Alo, MAC controller 122 may be coupled to the backbone 116 to couple device 124 to the Internet 12 via a wired connection. In addition, the A 102 infratructure may further be connected directly to a private branch exchange ( PBX ) 120 ytem that i connected to conventional landline 122 and a public witched telephone network (PTN). The PBX 120 Logic at the PBX 120 or the A 102 may then employ a leat cot routing cheme to direct call from extenion on the PBX 120 to the Central Office on a local loop or to the Internet 12 according to a VoIP protocol. In addition, a headet, which i eentially a peaker, a Bluetooth-ready module, and a battery may be ued in a DT 6 aturated environment to perform wirele communica tion. Either with connection to the PTN through the PBX 120 or with voice over IP for lowet cot, a voice over IP gateway may be created that will be capable of making inexpenive voice over IP connection in any location. Another example of the multiple way in which a DT 6 environment 14 may be utilized i in conjunction with oftware program uch a PC Anywhere. For intance, an Ethernet connection may be made to a Bluetooth or IEEE ready MU 4 and a naphot of the creen of MU 4 may be taken. A reduced quality train may then be ent back to MU 4 along with keyboard and moue command. Baically, MU 4 may be remotely controlled whereby all function, computation, and the like are performed on the oppoite end of the connection. An office building, for example, may be aturated with ditributed tranceiver for wirele communication ytem 2 to replace of augment fixed wire communication device. A mobile device may be dropped in any location neceary, and a voice over IP ytem make the connection. With a high-peed erver that i connected to Internet 12 intalled in the building, a uer may imply turn on a web brower and acquire intantaneou acce to a multitude of information a well a ervice. For example, a uer can receive information uch a the weather forecat, leading new torie, and area retaurant provided that MU 4 ha a method of determining it own location. Retaurant reervation, plane reervation, and car rental reervation are everal example of the many er vice that may then be provided. With the ue of either Bluetooth or IEEE wirele technologie, each MU 4 i equipped with an identification code that can be tranmitted to and recognized by ditributed tranceiver for wirele communication ytem 2 that allow recognition of MU 4 prior to providing acce to ytem ervice. The unique identification may provide a meaure of ecurity a well a a ervice billing mechanim. Payment for Internet 12 acce may be accomplihed in numerou way. For intance, a local tranceiver may ak for the cutomer' credit card number or ome other kind of account number. Billing may be conducted by hour, by day, by month, etc. Of coure, different environment 14 may employ varying billing method. For example, a ale fea ture at tarbuck may be to offer free Bluetooth or IEEE acce with a purchae. While the above decription refer to particular embodi ment of the preent invention, it will be undertood to thoe

6 of ordinary kill in the art that modification may be made without departing from the pirit thereof. The accompanying claim are intended to cover any uch modification a would fall within the true cope and pirit of the preent invention. The preently dicloed embodiment are therefore to be conidered in all repect a illutrative and not retrictive; the cope of the invention being indicated by the appended claim, rather than the foregoing decription. All change that come within the meaning and range of equivalency of the claim are therefore intended to be embraced therein. What i claimed i: 1. A ytem of providing mobile device acce to a public data communication network according to a local wirele communication protocol, the ytem compriing: a central controller having a network proceor for com municating with point on the public data communica tion network according to a packet witched network communication protocol, a power upply to generate DC power, and a digital ignal proceor for demodul lating uplink radio frequency (RF) ignal to provide digital data to the network proceor and modulating digital data from the network proceor to provide one or more downlink RF ignal; a plurality of RF acce point, each of the RF acce point having an antenna, circuitry for tranmitting the downlink ignal to and receiving the uplink ignal from proximate mobile device in wirele communication with the central controller through the RF acce point; and for each of the RF acce point, a cable coupled between the central controller and the RF acce point to tran mit the DC power to the RF acce point and to tranmit the uplink and downlink RF ignal between the proxi mate mobile device and the central controller. 2. The ytem of claim 1, wherein the cable include eight wire. 3. The ytem of claim 1, wherein the local wirele communication protocol i ubtantially compliant with at leat one of the Bluetooth and IEEE wirele com munication protocol and the public data communication network include the Internet. 4. The ytem of claim 1, wherein the DC power i between about 5.0 and 15.0 volt. 5. The ytem of claim 1, wherein the public data com munication network include the Internet and the ytem further include a connection to a private branch exchange (PBX) coupled to a local loop, and wherein the proceor include logic for determining a leat cot call route from point on the PBX from among route including the local loop and Voice over the Internet. 6. The ytem of claim 1, wherein the digital ignal proceor include a plurality of dicrete mixed-ignal circuit, each mixed-ignal circuit being adapted to tranmit a downlink ignal to and receive an uplink ignal from a correponding one of the RF acce point, and a hub for combining digital data from each of the mixed ignal circuit for tranmiion to the network proceor. 7. A method of intalling a tranceiver ytem in a premie to permit acce to a public data communication network through mobile communication device, the method compriing: intalling at the premie a central controller having a network proceor for communicating with point on the public data communication network according to a packet witched network communication protocol, a U 6,738,641 B power upply to generate DC power, and a digital ignal proceor for demodulating uplink radio fre quency (RF) ignal to provide digital data to the network proceor and modulating digital data from the network proceor to provide one or more downlink RF ignal; intalling at the premie a plurality of RF acce point, each of the RF acce point having an antenna, cir cuitry for tranmitting the downlink ignal to and receiving the uplink ignal from proximate mobile device in wirele communication with the central controller through the RF acce point; and for each of the RF acce point, coupling a cable between the central controller and the RF acce point to tran mit the DC power to the RF acce point and to tranmit the uplink and downlink RF ignal between the proxi mate mobile device and the central controller. 8. The method of claim 7, wherein the cable include eight wire and the method further comprie: coupling four of the wire to permit tranmiion of the DC power from the power upply to the RF acce point; and coupling four of the wire between the digital ignal proceor to permit the tranmiion of RF ignal between the digital ignal proceor and the wirele acce point. 9. The method of claim 7, wherein the local wirele communication protocol i ubtantially compliant with at leat one of the Bluetooth and IEEE wirele com munication protocol and the public data communication network include the Internet. 10. The method of claim 7, wherein the DC power i between about 5.0 and 15.0 volt. 11. The method of claim 7, wherein the public data communication network include the Internet and the method further comprie coupling the network proceor to a private branch exchange (PBX) coupled to a local loop; and wherein the proceor include logic for determining a leat cot call route from point on the PBX from among route including the local loop and Voice over the Internet. 12. The method ytem of claim 7, wherein the digital ignal proceor include a plurality of dicrete mixed-ignal circuit, each mixed-ignal circuit being adapted to tranmit a downlink ignal to and receive an uplink ignal from a correponding one of the RF acce point, and a hub for combining digital data from each of the mixed ignal circuit for tranmiion to the network proceor. 13. A ytem of providing mobile device acce to a public data communication network according to a local wirele communication protocol, the ytem compriing: a plurality of radio frequency (RF) acce point, each of the RF acce point having an antenna, and circuitry for tranmitting an uplink RF ignal and receiving a downlink RF ignal; a central controller having a network proceor to tranmit digital data and to receive digital data, a power upply to generate DC power, and a digital ignal proceor for demodulating the uplink RF ignal to provide digital data to the network proceor and modulating digital data from the network proceor to provide the down link RF ignal, a plurality of cable, wherein each of the plurality of cable directly connect a correponding RF acce point to the central controller and tranmit the down link RF ignal and the uplink RF ignal between the plurality of RF acce point and the central controller; and

7 7 a gateway proceor, coupled to the central controller, to upply digital data to the network proceor, to receive digital data from the network proceor and to provide a pathway for the plurality of RF acce point to acce the public data communication network. 14. The ytem of claim 13, wherein each of the plurality of cable tranmit DC power from the power upply to each of the plurality of acce point. 15. The ytem of claim 13, wherein the digital ignal proceor include a plurality of dicrete mixed ignal U 6,738,641 B1 8 circuit, each mixed-ignal circuit being adapted to tranmit a downlink ignal to and receive an uplink ignal from a correponding one of the RF acce point. 16. The ytem of claim 15, wherein the digital ignal proceor further include a hub for combining digital data from each of the mixed-ignal circuit for tranmiion to the network proceor. k k k k k