Patent ID: 6359871
Filing Date: 2002-03-19
Classification: H04B,H04W

Abstract:
A communication network for an area comprising:a plurality of base stations interconnected by a unidirectional signal path to form a network backbone, with a base station at one end of the backbone configured to act as a network controller for controlling the network and a base station at a distal end of the backbone configured to loop back the unidirectional signal path to the network controller via any intervening base stations whereby the network controller is not in direct signal connection with the base station at the distal end; a plurality of portables adapted for communication with any of said base stations by a common air interface; a network protocol for communicating between said base stations, said protocol realized by using a time division multiple access (TDMA) framing specification comprising a plurality of basic frames, each basic frame divided into a plurality of time slots, where a first of said time slots in each basic frame is a signalling time slot that, in turn is divided into a preamble word and a plurality of signalling message words, the preamble word divided into a bit synchronisation word and a framed synchronisation word, to provide a guard band to accommodation for timing tolerances between receive and transmit clock frequencies, and where each signalling message word is associated with a particular base station; and, a common air interface protocol for communicating between said portables and said base stations; wherein said base stations other than the network controller act as slave stations to said network controller and each slave base station defines a discrete cell within which communication between a portable disposed within that cell and its corresponding base station is performed over said common air interface.