Patent ID: 9635571
Date: 2017-04-25
CPC Classifications: H04W

Claim:
1. A method for reception mode switching in a dual-carrier fixed wireless backhaul network comprising a plurality of nodes, said nodes comprising a plurality of Hub modules, each serving one or more remote backhaul modules (RBMs) through Hub-RBM radio links, the method comprising deploying RBMs comprising multimode RBMs which are selectively operable in a plurality of reception modes comprising a baseline reception mode and one or more other reception modes, using a primary carrier and a secondary carrier, the primary carrier being a licensed band and the secondary carrier being a lower cost shared band or an unlicensed band, wherein each multi-mode RBM comprises first and second Radio Frequency (RF) chains, the first RF chain comprising RF hardware and antenna elements for receiving and transmitting (RX/TX) on the primary carrier and the second RF chain comprising RF hardware and antenna elements configurable for RX/TX on the secondary carrier or for RX on the primary carrier; in a data collection phase: obtaining baseline performance measurements for each RBM operating in the baseline reception mode, wherein the first RF chain operates for RX/TX on the primary carrier, identifying from said baseline performance measurements interference-challenged RBMs or link budget-challenged RBMs, for each interference-challenged RBM and link budget-challenged RBM obtaining further performance measurements for each of said one or more other RBM reception modes, said one or more other reception modes comprising at least a first reception mode with antenna/RF chain aggregation and resource borrowing on the primary carrier, wherein the first RF chain operates for RX/TX on the primary carrier and the second RF chain operates for RX on the primary carrier; in a parameter selection phase: based on said baseline performance measurements and further performance measurements for each interference-challenged RBM or link budget-challenged RBM, selecting from said plurality of reception modes a reception mode which provides a performance gain relative to the baseline reception mode; and in a parameter application phase: for each interference-challenged RBM or link budget-challenged RBM, switching to a respective selected reception mode.