INTEGRATED PICO/MICRO BASE TRANSCEIVER STATION
Field of the Disclosure: -
The present disclosure refers to an integrated remote base station and more specifically, but not limited to, an integrated pico/micro base transceiver station (BTS).
Background: -
A typical wireless communication system comprises a Mobile Station (MS), a Base Station and Network and Switching Subsystem (NSS). The Base Station comprises several Base Transceiver Stations (BTSs), wireless equipment of Global Standard for Mobile Communication (GSM) networks and Base Station Controllers (BSCs), central node of a GSM based Radio Network communicatively coupled to each other. Traditionally, BTSs are deployed at different locations, far from the BSCs. The communication between the two is achieved by way of a connection referred to as 'backhaul' through a Transmission Network. Said transmission network used to establish backhaul may be wired or wireless, such as microwave, depending on the deployment scenario.
For installation of a BTS, several additional equipments such as GSM BTS antenna, Transmission equipment and transmission antenna are required. Such an arrangement tends to make a BTS site an extremely complex phenomenon, which requires very skilled engineers. Further in order to avoid costly backhaul barriers to service expansion, service providers tend to maximize utilization of a BTS site infrastructure by increasing the capacity of users supported and RF power of the site.
As the number of cells of a wireless communication system increase, requirement for backhaul for these cells also increases. Such increase cannot be met by traditional wireless backhaul mechanisms as they are not viable for dense small cell deployment scenario while terrestrial backhaul mechanisms are not cost effective for such a scenario.
Summary of the Disclosure: -
An object of the present disclosure is to eliminate the need for expensive connections and microwave links.
According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, an integrated pico/micro Base Transceiver Station (BTS) for a wireless network comprises at least one transceiver, at least one power amplifier coupled to the at least one transceiver and a backhaul antenna operatively coupled to the at least one power amplifier to provide a single interconnect point.
According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the backhaul antenna is outer shell of the low capacity integrated BTS.
According to yet another embodiment of the disclosure, the integrated BTS is configured to check link availability and maintenance of the wireless network at a remote location.
An object of the present disclosure is to provide fully integrated backhaul transmission and backhaul antenna.
An object of the present disclosure is to enable efficient, low cost and simple installation of a GSM BTS by providing external connectivity only for GSM antenna of a standard GSM BTS and power.
An object of the present disclosure is to achieve reduction in cable losses and power consumption.
Brief Description of Drawings: -
The aforementioned aspects and other features of the present disclosure will be explained in the following description, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein
Figure 1 illustrates a block diagram of an integrated pico/micro base transceiver station (BTS) in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure.
Figure 2 illustrates a diagrammatic representation of coverage expansion in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure.
Detailed Description: -
Exemplary embodiments now will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. The disclosure may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein; rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey its scope to those skilled in the art. The terminology used in the detailed description of the particular exemplary embodiments illustrated in the accompanying drawings is not intended to be limiting. In the drawings, like numbers refer to like elements.
The specification may refer to "an", "one" or "some" embodiment(s) in several locations. This does not necessarily imply that each such reference is to the
same embodiment(s), or that the feature only applies to a single embodiment. Single features of different embodiments may also be combined to provide other embodiments.
As used herein, the singular forms "a", "an" and "the" are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless expressly stated otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms "includes", "comprises", "including" and/or "comprising" when used in this specification, specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof. It will be understood that when an element is referred to as being "connected" or "coupled" to another element, it can be directly connected or coupled to the other element or intervening elements may be present. Furthermore, "connected" or "coupled" as used herein may include wirelessly connected or coupled. As used herein, the term "and/or" includes any and all combinations and arrangements of one or more of the associated listed items.
Unless otherwise defined, all terms (including technical and scientific terms) used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this disclosure pertains. It will be further understood that terms, such as those defined in commonly used dictionaries, should be interpreted as having a meaning that is consistent with their meaning in the context of the relevant art and will not be interpreted in an idealized or overly formal sense unless expressly so defined herein.
"Wireless communication system" includes any communication system or any combination of different communication systems. The communication system may be a fixed communication system or a wireless communication system or a communication system utilizing both fixed networks and wireless networks. The
protocols used, the specifications of communication systems, servers and user terminals, especially in wireless communication, develop rapidly. Such development may require extra changes to an embodiment. Therefore, all words and expressions should be interpreted broadly and they are intended to illustrate, not to restrict the embodiment.
The figures depict a simplified structure only showing some elements and functional entities, all being logical units whose implementation may differ from what is shown. The connections shown are logical connections; the actual physical connections may be different. It is apparent to a person skilled in the art that the structure may also comprise other functions and structures. It should be appreciated that the functions, structures, elements and the protocols used in communication are irrelevant to the present disclosure. Therefore, they need not be discussed in more detail here.
Also, all logical units described and depicted in the figures include the software and/or hardware components required for the unit to function. Further, each unit may comprise within itself one or more components which are implicitly understood. These components may be operatively coupled to each other and be configured to communicate with each other to perform the function of the said unit.
Figure 1 illustrates a block diagram of an integrated pico/micro base transceiver station (BTS) according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. The integrated pico/micro BTS 100 comprises at least one transceiver 101, at least one power amplifier 102 operatively coupled to the at least one transceiver 101 and a backhaul antenna 103 operatively coupled to the at least one power amplifier 102 to provide a single interconnect point. Owing to such integration, no extra cables or complex connections are required as external connectivity is provided only for an antenna and for providing power.
According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the backhaul antenna comprises the outer shell of the integrated pico/micro BTS.
According to yet another embodiment of the present disclosure, the integrated pico/micro BTS is configured check link availability, and maintain the wireless network at a remote location.
According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, signal strength of the wireless network is monitored and Bandwidth utilization is monitored. According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, access points and stations are monitored to identify those, which are available for linking. Link availability is commonly expressed as the percentage of the time during which the bit error rate representing the performance of the link is lower than a 45 given threshold level. Embodiments of the integrated base stations are compatible with any category of backhaul such as satellite backhaul and IP backhaul.
Figure 2 refers to a diagrammatic representation of coverage expansion in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. 201(1), 201(2)... 201 (n) refers to cells of a wireless communication system while 202(1), 202(2).... 202(n) refer to integrated pico/micro BTSs. As is evident from the figure, there is no requirement of external connectivity as backhaul is achieved wirelessly. Therefore, service providers are equipped to place the integrated base stations at any locations without worrying about backhaul and thereby, expanding their network coverage in urban, sub-urban and rural areas.
The present disclosure aims to support dense and small pico micro cell backhaul requirements as existing currently. Embodiments of the present disclosure require less space, less height tower and less number of cables, thereby making embodiments of the present disclosure easier to install.
Embodiments of the present disclosure, though described at various instances in reference to GSM, may be extended to General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) or Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE) technology without additional hardware.
As will be appreciated by one of skill in the art, the present invention may be embodied as a method, system, or computer program product. Accordingly, the present invention may take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, a software embodiment or an embodiment combining software and hardware aspects all generally referred to herein as a "circuit" or "module." Furthermore, the present invention may take the form of a computer program product on a computer-usable storage medium having computer-usable program code embodied in the medium.

We claim: -
1. An integrated pico/micro base transceiver station (BTS) comprising: -
a. at least one transceiver;
b. at least one power amplifier operatively coupled to the at least one
transceiver; and
c. a backhaul antenna operatively coupled to said at least one power
amplifier to provide a single interconnect point.
2. An integrated pico/micro BTS as claimed in claim 1 wherein the backhaul antenna comprises the outer shell of the integrated pico/micro BTS.
3. An integrated pico/micro BTS as claimed in claim 1 wherein said integrated BTS is configured to: -
a. monitor the wireless network ;
b. check link availability; and
c. maintain the wireless network at a remote location.