Abstract:
This disclosure describes a new Medium Access Control (MAC) protocol that combines contention-free and contention-based MAC protocols into a heterogeneous MAC protocol used for forwarding VoIP traffic in VoIP systems on wireless networks using multiple base stations which addresses the need to transport high bit-rate data to multiple users over wired and wireless means.

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION 
       [0001]    The present application claims the benefit of previously filed co-pending Provisional Patent Application, Ser. No. 61/123,875. 
     
    
     FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
       [0002]    This invention addresses the need to transport high bit-rate data and voice to multiple users over wired and wireless means. Specifically, this disclosure describes a new MAC protocol that combines contention-free and contention-based MAC protocols for use in VOIP systems with multiple base stations. 
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
       [0003]    The invention disclosed in this application uses any integer cycle or impulse type modulation and more particularly is designed to work with a method of modulation named Tri-State Integer Cycle Modulation (TICM) which has been previously disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,003,047 issued Feb. 21, 2006 and is now known by its commercial designation, xMax. This new wireless physical layer technology developed by xG Technology Inc., referred to as xMAX, enables extremely low power omni-directional transmissions to be received in a wide area. Using xMAX, significant bandwidth can be made available for supporting various wireless applications. Voice Over IP (VOIP) based cellular services are now being developed using xMAX. In xMAX-based cellular networks both the base station and the handsets will be equipped with an xMAX transceiver. A mobile device (xMAX handset) in such a network will be free to move in an area covered by multiple xMAX base stations. Although this Heterogeneous MAC protocol for multiple base stations is disclosed in the preferred embodiment as being used in these types of integer cycle and pulse modulation systems it can be implemented on any broad band wireless technologies like WiMax, WiBro, WiFi, 3GPP and HSDPA, or any other type of wired or wireless voice or data systems. 
         [0004]    A heterogeneous MAC protocol proposed to support VOIP traffic in xMAX wireless networks was described in the pending patent application by one of the inventors of this application, “Heterogeneous MAC Protocol For Forwarding VoIP Traffic On Wireless Networks”, U.S. Ser. No. 12/069,057, the contents of which are included herein. In that application guaranteed timeslots are assigned to forward VOIP packets, temporary timeslots are assigned to forward data packets and contention based access is used to exchange control messages. That application described the MAC protocol in the context of a single base station providing metropolitan wide mobile VOIP service. Though the xMAX signal can propagate significant distances in comparison with other wireless physical layer technologies, a single base station might not be able to cover an entire area of interest. Thus, there is a need to deploy multiple base stations such that coverage areas of adjacent base stations overlap. If each of the base stations were to operate independently then multiple concurrent transmissions in adjacent cells might interfere with each other. Hence, there is a need to modify the MAC protocol to support multiple base stations. 
       BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0005]    In the application referenced above guaranteed timeslots are assigned to forward VOIP packets, temporary timeslots are assigned to forward data packets and contention based access is used to exchange control messages. That application described the MAC protocol in the context of a single base station providing metropolitan wide mobile VOIP service. Though the xMAX signal can propagate significant distances in comparison with other wireless physical layer technologies, a single base station might not be able to cover an entire area of interest. Thus, there is a need to deploy multiple base stations such that coverage areas of adjacent base stations overlap. If each of the base stations were to operate independently then multiple concurrent transmissions in adjacent cells might interfere with each other. In VOIP-based cellular networks xMAX handsets (or mobile nodes) will be equipped with the complete VOIP stack. The xMAX base station will be connected to the Internet through an Ethernet port. The mobile nodes will communicate with the xMAX base station to reach a VOIP gateway. To enable communication between an xMAX handset and multiple xMAX base stations we need a MAC (Medium Access Control) protocol that is optimized for VOIP traffic as described in the previous application referenced above and that also facilitates mobility of the handsets from one base station to another as described in this application. 
     
    
     
       DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0006]    For a fuller understanding of the nature and objects of the invention, reference should be made to the accompanying drawings, in which: 
           [0007]      FIG. 1  is a representation of a xMax deployment scenario using multiple base stations with three-sector antennas; and 
           [0008]      FIG. 2  is a representation of a Hyper-Frame format for the MAC protocol. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
       [0009]    The new wireless physical layer technology developed by xG Technology Inc., referred to as xMAX, enables extremely low power omni-directional transmissions to be received in a wide area. Using xMAX, significant bandwidth can be made available for supporting various wireless applications. Voice Over IP (VOIP) based cellular services are now being developed using xMAX. In xMAX-based cellular networks both the base station and the handsets will be equipped with an xMAX transceiver. A mobile device (xMAX handset) in such a network will be free to move in an area covered by multiple xMAX base stations. Although this Heterogeneous MAC protocol for multiple base stations is disclosed in the preferred embodiment as being used in these types of integer cycle and pulse modulation systems it can be implemented on any broad band wireless technologies like WiMax, WiBro, WiFi, 3GPP and HSDPA, or any other type of wired or wireless voice or data systems. 
         [0010]    In VOIP-based cellular networks xMAX handsets (or mobile nodes) will be equipped with the complete VOIP stack. The xMAX base station will be connected to the Internet through an Ethernet port. The mobile nodes will communicate with the xMAX base station to reach a VOIP gateway.  FIG. 1  depicts the deployment scenario with multiple base stations. To enable communication between an xMAX handset and multiple xMAX base stations one needs a MAC (Medium Access Control) protocol that is optimized for VOIP traffic as described in the previous application referenced above and that also facilitates mobility of the handsets from one base station to another. 
         [0011]    As shown in the preferred embodiment of  FIG. 1  the reader should consider multiple base stations covering a geographical area. Adjacent base stations&#39; coverage areas overlap in order to eliminate uncovered gaps in the coverage area and facilitate seamless mobility of the handsets from one base station to another. Each base station is equipped with a three-sectored antenna with each sector covering 120° in azimuth along with a feasible deployment scenario. The base station locations are carefully planned. In addition, the orientation of the sectors is pre-determined and remains fixed throughout the operational lifetime of the network. Notice that in  FIG. 1  the sector orientation is symmetric; i.e., all the sectors with the same number are pointing in the same direction. For example, the first sector of each base station is facing south. 
         [0012]    In the preferred embodiment all of the base stations are using the xMAX signal to communicate with handsets in their coverage area. In addition, the communication is carried over the ISM band near 900 MHz. Due to the inherent nature of a xMAX signal only one frequency channel is available in the system. 
         [0013]    All the base station&#39;s clocks are synchronized. Numerous solutions exist for achieving clock synchronization that are well known to those skilled in the art. For example, Network Timing Protocol (NTP) version 3 described in RFC 1305 or Simple Network Timing Protocol (SNTP) described in RFC 2030 can be used. More information on both the protocols can be obtained from the www.ntp.org website. GPS is also an option to synchronize the base stations. 
         [0014]    The basic idea for using xMAC in multi-base station deployment involves scheduling all the sectors with the same number concurrently. To accomplish such a schedule the time domain is sliced into equal intervals of time referred to as hyper-frames as shown in  FIG. 2 . Each hyper-frame is in turn split into multiple super-frames. Adjacent super-frames are separated by a time duration referred to as Inter Frame Spacing (IFS). Duration of the IFS depends on the amount of time it takes to switch between the corresponding sectors of the base stations. 
         [0015]    The hyper-frame is a timeframe of 30 ms duration in which the super-frames of all interfering base stations are accommodated. For example, if there are three interfering base stations, then each will adjust their super-frame period to 10 ms to fit the hyper-frame. Note that the hyper-frame duration depends on the codec used and the value of the packetization interval set. For G.723.1 codec with a packetization interval of 30 milli-seconds we use a hyper-frame duration of 30 milli-seconds. If the packetization interval were to be increased to 60 milli-seconds then the hyper-frame duration can be set as 60 milli-seconds. The duration of the hyper-frame, duration of super-frames, and the number of super-frames in each hyper-frame is announced in each sector of the base station. 
         [0016]    Each sector is numbered as shown in  FIG. 1 . Note that sectors that are assigned the same numeric value are pointing towards the same direction. For example, all sectors with value of one are pointing in a southern direction. The assignment of a numeric value can be done manually during the network planning phase or can be accomplished by a dynamic distributed algorithm. This value assignment algorithm is outside the scope of the current invention disclosure. 
         [0017]    All sectors with an assigned value of one will operate in the first super-frame. Similarly, sectors with assigned value of two (resp. three) will operate in the second (resp. third) super-frame. In the proposed schedule, sectors  2  and  3  will not operate when sector  1  is operational. In addition, sectors  3  and  1  will not operate when sector  2  is operational. Similarly, sectors  1  and  2  will not operate when sector  3  is operating. Hence, interference of overlapping sectors with the same assigned values is eliminated. 
         [0018]    Next, one needs to consider interference between sectors with the same assigned value that are neighbors. To mitigate this interference you have to ensure that the downlink and uplink duration of neighboring sectors with the same assigned value is the same. If this condition is not ensured it might be possible that an uplink transmission in one sector might interfere with a downlink transmission in a neighboring sector. The scenario would be more prevalent in handsets that are located on the boundary of the sectors and are associated with base station on different towers. 
         [0019]    Note that one need not maintain a globally unique value of the downlink and uplink across all the sectors. Though such an implementation would be easier to develop it is not essentially an optimal implementation. The required constraint is that any two neighboring sectors with the same assigned value maintain the same uplink and downlink duration. Consider three towers A, B and C. Let them be deployed linearly wherein cells A and B are neighboring cells with an overlapping region. Similarly let cells B and C be neighboring cells with an overlapping region. Then consider sector  1  in all cells A, B and C. Assume that sector  1  of cell A has 10 handsets in voice session. Similarly, sector  1  of cell B (resp. C) has 5 (resp.  6 ) handsets in voice session. Let T be the duration of each timeslot including the guard band duration. Then we would have uplink/downlink durations of  10 T,  10 T and  6 T in cells A, B and C respectively. It is quite evident that we need an uplink/downlink duration of  10 T in cell A. In cell B, though we have only 5 handsets that are in a voice session, we end up allocating 10 uplink and downlink slots. Of these 10 timeslots 5 timeslots would go unused. Assigning 6 uplink and downlink timeslots in cell C will not result in any interference with cell C. 
         [0020]    Since certain changes may be made in the above described MAC protocol that combines contention-free and contention-based MAC protocols for use in VoIP systems with multiple base stations without departing from the scope of the invention herein involved, it is intended that all matter contained in the description thereof or shown in the accompanying figures shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.