Providing reference signal to radio heads

A method and apparatus for supplying a timing signal from a central unit to at least one radio head connected to the central unit via a communications link. An external signal, typically generated by a MSC, is received at a first framer of the central unit and the first framer generates a reference clock signal based thereon. This reference clock signal is used as the transmit clock for a second framer, known as the radio head framer. The radio head framer transmits a radio head downlink signal to the radio head(s) via the communications link. The radio head downlink signal typically includes payload information and an associated timing reference signal, typically in the form of an embedded clock signal. This timing reference signal of the downlink is based on the reference clock signal from the first framer, rather than being based on a clock signal from an oscillator within the central unit. The transceivers within the radio head(s) may then control their RF transmissions using the timing reference signal from the radio head framer of the central unit. Accordingly, the radio head(s) are provided with a timing reference signal that is based relatively directly on the signal from the MSC.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to the provision of reference signals to one or more radio heads.

Many wireless communication systems include one or more radio heads connected to a central unit by a wire based communications link, such as a T1 or E1 line. These high speed, high bandwidth lines typically do not include a separate clock line, but may nevertheless still be used to provide timing reference signals for phase locked loops within the radio heads. The phase locked loops are in turn used to perform a wide variety of tasks, such as carrier frequency synthesis. In general, the performance of the radio head, and, in particular, the accuracy of the carrier frequency transmitted by the respective transceivers, may vary depending on the timing accuracy of the timing reference signal provided to the radio head. Accordingly, it is desirable to supply accurate timing reference signals to the radio heads.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides a method and apparatus for supplying a timing signal from a central unit to at least one radio head connected to the central unit via a communications link. An external signal, typically generated by a MSC, is received at a reference framer of the central unit and the reference framer generates a reference clock signal based thereon. This reference clock signal is used as the transmit clock for a second framer, known as the radio head framer. The radio head framer transmits a downlink signal to the radio head(s) via the communications link. The downlink signal may include payload information and an associated timing reference signal, typically in the form of an embedded clock signal. This timing reference signal of the downlink is based on the reference clock signal from the reference framer, rather than being based on a clock signal from an oscillator within the central unit. The transceivers within the radio head(s) may then control their RF transmissions using the timing reference signal of the downlink from the radio head framer of the central unit. Accordingly, the radio head(s) are provided with a timing reference signal that is based relatively directly on the signal from the MSC, thereby providing fewer opportunities for error introduction.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is directed to provision of a timing reference to radio heads; however, an understanding of an entire communications system may be helpful in understanding the context of the present invention. While the following discussion may be couched in terms of a communication system using the TIA/EIA-136 protocol, it should be appreciated that the present invention is not limited thereto and is instead equally applicable to communications systems operating according to a wide variety protocols, including Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM) and Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) systems.

Turning now to FIG. 1 , a communication system 10 is illustrated. In particular, the communications system 10 includes the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) 20 and the Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN) 30 , which may, in turn, be connected to one or more Localized Wireless Telephone Systems (LWTS) 60 . While not shown, satellites may be used as needed either within the PSTN 20 or the PLMN 30 to provide remote communication links, such as across oceans or the like.

The operation of the PSTN 20 is well established and subject to extensive documentation beyond the scope of the present invention and therefore a more detailed discussion is omitted.

PLMN 30 may include a plurality of proprietary mobile networks 40 , and each mobile network 40 may include a plurality of Mobile Switching Centers (MSC) 42 . Typically, at least one MSC 42 in the PLMN 30 , and more advantageously one MSC 42 in each mobile network 40 , is connected via a gateway to the PSTN 20 . Some MSCs 42 may also serve as gateways connecting the various mobile networks 40 within the PLMN 30 . Gateway functions may be all consolidated at a single MSC 42 within a mobile network 40 or dispersed amongst a plurality of MSCs 42 within a mobile network 40 as needed or desired. Typically, at least one MSC 42 within a particular mobile network 40 connects to, or includes, a Home Location Register (HLR) 44 and a Visitor Location Register (VLR) 46 , whose functions are well known in the art. Additionally, each mobile network 40 may be equipped with a message center 48 communicatively connected to an MSC 42 for handling short message service and the like. Each MSC 42 may further be communicatively connected to a plurality of base stations 50 . Each base station 50 may be communicatively connected to one or more mobile terminals 100 , typically over an RF communications channel.

The LWTS 60 is a wireless telecommunications system that may be public or proprietary as needed or desired, and is typically a private network installed in a building or on a campus. LWTSs 60 are typically installed to allow employees working in the building or on the campus to use a mobile terminal 100 as an office telephone. LWTS 60 typically connects with an MSC 42 in the PLMN 30 to allow subscribers of the LWTS 60 to move seamlessly between the LWTS 60 and the PLMN 30 . The MSC 42 responsible for a LWTS 60 may treat the LWTS 60 merely as another base station 50 or a plurality of base stations 50 depending on the internal structure of the LWTS 60 in question. One of many configurations of a LWTS 60 is shown in more detail in FIG. 2 .

The LWTS 60 of FIG. 2 includes a control and radio interface (CRI) 200 connected to one or more radio heads (RH) 300 . While only one radio head 300 is depicted in FIG. 2 , it should be understood that multiple radio heads 300 may be, and typically are, employed, with the radio heads 300 arranged in one or more chains connected to the CRI 200 . Each radio head chain may have a serial (cascaded) or parallel configuration, as appropriate. The radio heads 300 communicate with the CRI (or central unit ) 200 via a communications link 400 that may be conceptually be thought of as having downlink 410 (CRI to radio head) and uplink 420 (radio head to CRI) portions. The communications link 400 typically takes the physical form of one or more T1 or E1 lines, but may take other forms known in the art. It should be noted that T1 and E1 lines typically employ pulse code modulation, but the communications link 400 may employ other modulation techniques as is known in the art.

Radio head 300 transmits RF telecommunications signals to mobile terminals 100 using associated transceiver 350 , based at least in part on the information signals provided by the CRI 200 via the downlink 410 . In addition, radio head 300 receives RF signals from mobile terminals 100 and forwards the same to the CRI via the uplink 420 . For additional details regarding the overall function and configuration of radio heads 300 , see U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/666,446, filed 21 Sep. 2000 and entitled Cascaded Parallel Phase Locked Loops, which is incorporated herein to the extent it does not conflict with the present disclosure. For purposes of understanding the present invention, it should be noted that the radio head downlink signal (RH d ) from the CRI 200 is input to the radio head 300 where it is typically segregated into a clock signal and a payload signal. The clock signal is used to help control the RF transmissions from the radio head's transceiver 350 , such as by providing a reference for generating a carrier frequency and/or timing synchronization. Most cellular communications standards typically require a long-term accuracy of 0.016 ppm, or Stratum 2, for the clock signal provided to the CRI 200 from MSC 42 , in order that the proper accuracy may be achieved by the transceivers 350 of the radio heads 300 . Accordingly, because the radio heads 300 use the radio head downlink signal RH d supplied by the CRI 200 to generate appropriate internal clock signals to, inter alia, control RF transmissions from the radio head's transceiver 350 , the quality of the clock signal supplied by the CRI 200 via the downlink portion 410 of the communications link 400 may influence the performance of the radio head 300 . Thus, providing accurate timing signals to the radio head 300 , via downlink 410 , is desirable.

The CRI 200 serves primarily as the interface between the MSC 42 and the radio heads 300 . The CRI 200 may oversee or perform the functions of control of air channels, control of radio heads 300 , routing of data to and from the radio heads 300 , and the like. Most of these functions are well known in the art and are not discussed further herein. Relevant to the present invention, the CRI 200 provides timing reference signals to the radio heads 300 , such as for air frame synchronization and carrier frequency reference. For simplicity in explaining the present invention, primarily those CRI components related to providing the timing reference are shown in FIG. 2 , but the CRI 200 of FIG. 2 is to be understood to include other functional components known in the art. The CRI 200 includes a network (NW) framer 210 , an oscillator 220 , one or more radio head (RH) framers 230 , and a reference framer 240 . The network framer 210 receives input, sometimes referred to herein as the external signal, from the MSC 42 via E1/T1 downlink 510 and processes that external signal in a conventional fashion to extract payload information and an associated embedded clock signal. It should be noted that the embedded clock signal from the MSC 42 typically meets the requirements of Stratum 2 (0.016 ppm), and may meet the higher standard of Stratum 1 (0.01 ppb). The network framer 210 outputs a payload signal and a clock signal (Clock net ) based on the external signal. The payload signal is directed to the appropriate portions of the CRI 200 for internal data processing, as is known in the art. The Clock net signal is sent to the oscillator 220 , typically a phase locked loop, for generation of the CRI internal clock signal Clock osc . This Clock osc signal may be used in a conventional fashion to control various processes within the CRI 200 , such as the processing of the payload information within the CRI 200 and optionally as a transmit clock for uplink transmissions to the MSC 42 from network framer 210 . It should be noted that the generation of internal clock signal Clock osc by oscillator 220 may allow the introduction of errors into Clock osc that are not present in Clock net .

The input from the MSC 42 via downlink 510 is also directed to the reference framer 240 . The reference framer 240 extracts the embedded clock from the signal sent by the MSC 42 via the corresponding E1/T1 downlink 510 to produce a clock signal that will be referred to as the reference clock signal Clock ref . There is no need for the reference framer 240 to generate a payload signal for internal use within the CRI 200 , as this is handled by the network framer 210 . As such, the reference framer 240 may operate in a monitoring mode, meaning that the reference framer 240 should present high impedance to downlink 510 so as to not overload downlink 510 .

The radio head framer 230 operates in a conventional fashion to send information signals to radio heads 300 for subsequent transmission by the corresponding transceivers 350 , etc. The information signals transmitted by the radio head framer 230 includes at least a portion of the payload information extracted by the network framer 210 and an associated downlink clock signal. For purposes of the following discussion, it will be assumed that the downlink clock signal is embedded in the information signal, with the combined signal from the CRI 200 to the radio head 300 being called the radio head downlink signal RH d . However, the downlink clock signal may be transmitted to the radio head 300 in other ways, such as a separate line, but doing so is believed less efficient. The embedded clock signal generated by the radio head framer 230 is controlled by the transmit clock signal supplied to the radio head framer 230 . In the prior art, the oscillator 220 supplied the Clock osc signal as the transmit clock signal for the radio head framer 230 . As such, the accuracy of the transmit clock signal supplied to the radio head framer 230 was a function of the accuracy of the oscillator 220 . In the present invention, the reference clock signal Clock ref generated by the reference framer 240 is instead used by the radio head framer 230 as its transmit clock signal. As shown in FIG. 2 , the reference clock signal Clock ref from the reference framer 240 is fed directly to radio head framer 230 as the transmit clock signal therefor. As such, the downlink clock signal embedded in the radio head downlink signal RH d is based directly on the reference clock signal Clock ref . By directly Applicants mean that there is not an intervening oscillator (such as a phase lock loop) between the output of the reference framer 240 and the input to the radio head framer 230 (but there may be other electrical components such as switches, etc.). Because the downlink clock signal of the radio head downlink signal RH d from radio head framer 230 is based directly on the reference clock signal Clock ref , the accuracy of the clock signal from the MSC 42 (delivered to CRI 200 via downlink 510 ) may be forwarded to the radio heads 300 without being impacted by the accuracy of the oscillator 220 in the CRI 200 . Accordingly, under the present invention, the radio heads 300 , and their transceivers 350 , are provided with a clock signal that is based more directly on the signal from the MSC 42 than in the prior art. In short, the present invention allows the clock signal sent to the radio heads 300 to be generated by the CRI 200 without the need to pass through the CRI's oscillator 220 . This arrangement may reduce the amount of error that may exist in the clock signal sent to the radio heads 300 via downlink 410 , increasing long-term accuracy without requiring oscillator 220 to be highly accurate and therefore expensive.

It should be noted that because there is a potential difference between the clock signals in the CRI 200 coming from the oscillator 220 (Clock osc ) and the reference framer 240 (Clock ref ), it may be advantageous to employ appropriate slip buffers in the payload processing of the CRI 200 . When accumulated long-term drift occurs between the payload processing in the CRI 200 and the downlink transmissions from the CRI 200 to the radio heads 300 via downlink 410 , it may also become necessary to retransmit frames on the communications link 400 .

FIG. 2 shows a single CRI 200 connected to one chain of radio heads 300 ; this chain may contain either only a single radio head 300 or a plurality of radio heads 300 . Further, the present invention may be used in other configurations. For instance, the CRI 200 may be connected to more than one chain of radio heads 300 , as shown in FIG. 3 . In addition, the CRI 200 may also connect to another CRI 200 , also as shown in FIG. 3 . In this latter case, it may be advantageous to have the reference framer 240 forward clock signal Clock ref to the downstream CRI 200 , such as by using the Clock ref as is own transmit clock. That is, both the reference framer 240 and the radio head framer 230 may use the reference clock signal Clock ref as their transmit clocks. The downstream CRI 200 may also advantageously employ the technique of the present invention to generate the clock signal for its radio heads 200 based on the external-to-it signal without the need to pass through an oscillator 220 in the downstream CRI 200 .

Further, the discussion above has described the transmit clock input to the radio head framer 230 as being generated by the reference framer 240 (i.e., Clock ref ). Such an arrangement may be practical in many applications, but is not strictly required. Instead, the transmit clock input to the radio head framer 230 may instead be Clock net generated by the network framer 210 . Both arrangements use a framer to derive a clock signal from the external signal supplied via network downlink 510 , directly supply that derived clock (Clock ref , Clock net ) to the radio head framer 230 as the transmit clock therefor, without routing through an intervening oscillator 220 in the CRI 200 , and base the downlink clock signal (which may, but is not required to be, embedded) supplied to the radio heads 300 on the derived clock (Clock ref , Clock net ). Thus, depending on the configuration, either Clock ref or Clock net may be considered as the reference clock signal supplied to the radio head framer 230 as the transmit clock therefor.

In the discussion above, it was also assumed that the transmit clock signal for the radio head framer 230 of the CRI 200 is continuously derived from the downlink signal on network downlink 510 ; however, this is not required. Indeed, there may be times when the signal from the MSC 42 to the reference framer 240 may not be present, making generation of Clock net /Clock ref difficult. In such situations, it may be possible to derive a transmit clock signal for the radio head framer 230 of the CRI 200 from the uplink portion 420 of the communications link 400 , at least temporarily, so as to allow the CRI 200 to gracefully shutdown the radio heads 300 as appropriate. See U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/704,927, entitled Providing Timing Reference For Radio Heads, by Ossi Grohn (one of the present inventors) and filed concurrently herewith, which is incorporated herein to the extent it does not conflict with the present disclosure.

It should be noted that, some LWTS 60 may also contain so-called scanners that contain RF receivers only, or RF transceivers that function only as receivers. These specialized scanners, if present in the LWTS 60 , should typically be supplied with the same timing reference signals as the radio heads 300 . As such, it may be advantageous to provide any scanners in the LWTS 60 with timing reference signals similarly as described above.

As used herein, the term radio head means an active communications station with at least RF transmit capability that is fed data to be transmitted from an upstream source. Further, as used herein, the term mobile terminal 100 may include a cellular radiotelephone with or without a multi-line display; a Personal Communications System (PCS) terminal that may combine a cellular radiotelephone with data processing, facsimile and data communications capabilities; a Personal Digital Assistant that can include a radiotelephone, pager, Internet/intranet access, Web browser, organizer, calendar and/or a global positioning system (GPS) receiver; and a conventional laptop and/or palmtop receiver or other appliance that includes a radiotelephone transceiver. Mobile terminals 100 may also be referred to as pervasive computing devices.

The present invention may, of course, be carried out in other specific ways than those herein set forth without departing from the scope and the essential characteristics of the invention. The present embodiments are therefore to be construed in all aspects as illustrative and not restrictive and all changes coming within the meaning and equivalency range of the appended claims are intended to be embraced therein.