Patent ID: 9729238
Date: 2017-08-08
CPC Classifications: H04B,H04N,H04Q,H04W

Claim:
1. A method of enabling communication via a wireless communication system between a first peer device in a first coverage area and a second peer device in a second, different coverage area, the wireless communication system having a head-end unit (HEU) having an optical switch bank, at least one fiber optic cable, and a plurality of remote access points, the method comprising: optically linking a plurality of the remote access points to a head-end unit (HEU) via a plurality of the fiber optic cables, each of the plurality of fiber optic cables being configured to carry broadband signals including WLAN signals from the HEU to the plurality of remote access points; forming a first coverage area associated with a first one of the plurality of remote access points; forming a second coverage area associated with a second one of the plurality of remote access points different from the first coverage area; dynamically establishing an RoF-based optical link over at least one of the plurality of fiber optic cables to allow the first peer device to communicate with the second peer device at least in part over the RoF-based optical link; and the first one of the plurality of remote access points wirelessly communicating with the first peer device and the second one of the plurality of remote access points wirelessly communicating with the second peer device.