Patent Publication Number: US-2003224782-A1

Title: Method and system of connecting broadband wireless systems to wireline serving area interfaces

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICTIONS  
     [0001] This application claims the benefit of a U.S. Provisional Patent Application filed Sep. 15, 2001, titled “Method and System of Interconnecting Broadband Wireless Transport Systems to Telephone Service Wires at a Feeder/Distribution Interface,” U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/355,202, filed Feb. 11, 2002, titled “Method and System of Interconnecting Broadband Wireless Transport Systems to Telephone Service Wires at a Feeder/Distribution Interface,” and is a continuation-in-part of copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/244,698 filed Sep. 16, 2002, titled “Method and System of Interconnecting Broadband Wireless Transport Systems to Telephone Service Wires at a Feeder/Distribution Interface,” each of which are hereby expressly incorporated herein by reference in their entirety. 
    
    
     
       TECHNICAL FIELD  
       [0002] The present invention relates to a communications system, and more specifically, interconnection of a wireless system to existing wireline communications systems enabling broadband Internet access to residential and business serving wires within local serving areas.  
       BACKGROUND  
       [0003] Over several years the telephone operating companies have built their wireline communications systems based on a Bell system engineering practice known as “serving area concept design”, this design&#39;s prior art is illustrated in FIG. 1. This design takes a geographic area, associates it to a wire center that is made up of a plurality of serving areas. Each serving area has a set number of homes and businesses to which it can serve. The specific service wire composition, within a serving area is the result of the forecasted construction plans of the land developers and community leaders. From this information the local telephone company lays out the cabling network needed to serve the community, beginning with a primary feeder cable network. The primary feeder cable is like an umbilical cord, extending communications service from the telephone company&#39;s central switching office to the wire center. These feeder cables contain large numbers of bundled wire pairs and/or fiber strands in one or more cables. These bundles are then distributed to each serving area within the wire center in smaller bundled pairs sized to meet builder and community leader growth and occupancy forecasts.  
       [0004] As development proceeds, local telephone company transmission equipment is placed in the serving area as part of the feeder/distribution system that joins the feeder cable to the distribution cable network which extends one or more pairs of service wires to each residence or business in a serving area. These residential and business service wires are connected to the feeder/distribution system through a serving area interface cabinet or pedestal. This serving area interface is a hardwire termination point between the residence or business and the telephone company&#39;s transmission equipment. The serving area interface cabinet or pedestal typically located adjacent to this transmission equipment along public right-of-way, and is where skilled craft personnel physically place jumper wires that connect residential and business telephone service wires to the telephone company&#39;s communications system. It is in this transmission equipment where voice data signals on residential and business service wires are digitized for transmission to and from the telephone company&#39;s central office.  
       [0005] It is in the composition of the telephone company&#39;s feeder cable network, connecting the wire center to the central office where signal interference resulting from cable length, tightly bundled service wires, the presence of load coils, signal repeaters and fiber optics impede and distort the telephone company&#39;s ability to deliver high speed Internet access to many wire centers around the country. The affects on high frequency signal amplitude and phase in the feeder distribution interface restricts residences and businesses from having always-on high speed connections between the customer&#39;s premise and the Internet.  
       [0006] What is needed is an alternate communications transport network that overcomes the restrictions of the existing feeder cable network and enables high-speed, low latency transport of high frequency data from a residence or business point of access in the serving area interface to the Internet.  
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0007] A preferred embodiment of the present invention provides an improved communications transport system through the interconnection of a broadband wireless system to the wireline serving area interface of the feeder/distribution system. In particular, a preferred embodiment of the present invention includes a wireless terminal node that is also hardwired in to the serving area interface, using a multi-pair interconnection cable.  
       [0008] In accordance with the present invention, and prior art, twisted copper service pairs from multiple customer premises appear at the serving area interface and are connected directly to a wireless terminal node with the ability to filter low voice band frequencies from the service wire and pass them back through the serving area interface to the telephone company&#39;s transmission system. At the same time, take the high data frequencies present on the service wire and send them to the Internet using technology defined with in the embodiment of the present invention and a free space high capacity duplex microwave link.  
       [0009] Through the embodiment of the present invention, a customer&#39;s service wire can be connected to the Internet, without the use of the telephone company&#39;s transmission system and feeder cable network.  
       [0010] Some preferred embodiments of the present invention include a wireless terminal node that directly connects with other wireless terminal nodes using a network of local microwave radios.  
       [0011] Some preferred embodiments of the present invention include a packet routing capability in the terminal node that enables all terminal nodes within a wire center to transfer data without the assistance of a public Internet connection.  
       [0012] Some preferred embodiments of the present invention include a home or business customer is able to attach a digital subscriber line modem on their service wire and access the Internet without having to place a wireless antenna on or in their home or business.  
       [0013] Some preferred embodiments of the present invention include a communications system comprised of a plurality of remote wireless terminal nodes that contain commercially available passive line frequency filters, a digital line subscriber multiplexer, a compact Internet packet router, and broadband microwave packet radio.  
       [0014] In some preferred embodiments of the present invention a communications system that includes a packet routing function enabling residences and businesses, within as service area to interconnect with residences and businesses associated with wireless terminal nodes in other serving areas and wire centers without the assistance of a public Internet connection.  
       [0015] Some preferred embodiments of the present invention include a voice packet system that enables the residences and businesses associated with a serving area to establish voice connections within and between wire centers, without the assistance of local telephone and public Internet connections.  
       [0016] In some preferred embodiments of the present invention, is the packaging of a low voice (300 Hz-3600 kHz) band filter, cabled to an environmentally hardened digital line subscriber multiplexer used to locally terminate the discrete multi-tone (DMT) line coding from the residential and business service wires with in a service area, and couple them with a compact packet router that interconnects to the public and private Internet over a broadband microwave communications system.  
       [0017] In some preferred embodiments of the present invention, a packet router that applies known administrative applications supporting Internet (PPPOE and bridge encapsulation RFC1483) protocol and routes data to the broadband wireless packet radio for transport to the Internet.  
       [0018] In some preferred embodiments of the present invention, the packet router sends and receives data to and from customer premise equipment and the Internet, between terminal nodes and customer premise equipment located within the communications system.  
       [0019] In some preferred embodiments of the present invention, the communications system includes a plurality of terminal nodes, interconnected to the Internet over a plurality of distribution and transport microwave relays located along public access right of ways within a local geographic service area.  
       [0020] Additional features and advantages of the present invention are readily apparent from the following detailed description of the best mode of carrying out the invention when taken in connection with the accompanying drawings. 
     
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING  
     [0021]FIG. 1 is an overview illustration of the Local Facilities Network Structure found in prior art of the Bell Telephone Local Loop System;  
     [0022]FIG. 2 is an overview illustration of the local broadband wireless access network structure overlay to a pre-existing local facilities network structure in accordance with preferred embodiments of the present invention;  
     [0023]FIG. 3 is block diagram showing a portion of a communications system including a wireless terminal node according to preferred embodiments of the present invention; and  
     [0024]FIG. 4 is a combined block diagram showing the cross connection configuration of a residential or business service wire to the wireless terminal node before telephone lines are interconnected to the telephone company transmission system according to preferred embodiments of the present invention. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION  
     [0025] Preferred embodiments of the present invention overcome the limitations of the local telephone company&#39;s network to deliver broadband Internet access over the feeder cable network of service areas where typical service area concept design rules were applied. The present invention accomplishes this with a unique wireless terminal node that combines both wired and wireless communication capabilities. In some preferred embodiments the terminal node has the capability of bidirectionally exchanging high frequency/high bandwidth signals, both over a microwave wireless link and standard twisted copper pairs found between serving area interfaces. The present invention is not limited to the type of devices connected to twisted copper pairs, or the type of physical structures that may contain such devices.  
     [0026] As described in more detail herein, the wireless terminal node exchanges high throughput digitized data (“broadband”) over a wireless link with another device coupled to the Internet. The wireless terminal node is connected to the residential and business service wires at the serving area interface of the feeder/distribution system serving the physical service area. The terminal node is configured to allow previously existing low frequency signals to be passed between the service wires in the distribution cable with the telephone company&#39;s remote transmission equipment, so that the plain old telephone service, “POTS” connection with the telephone company is maintained as before.  
     [0027] Referring to the prior art of FIG. 1, this is an illustration of a typical local facilities network structure employed by telephone companies using the Bell System serving area concept of communication system design  100 . The wireline communications system employs a serving area concept of design that divides geographic wire center boundaries  101  into a plurality of serving areas  102 , and where each serving area  102  contains a feeder/distribution system  106 . An expansion of a serving area  108  shows that a plurality of residential and business service wires are present within designated development areas  112  in a specific serving area  103 . Each residence and business within a development area  112  has service wires  110  extending from their premise to the distribution cable network  114  in the serving area  103 . Multiple distribution cables  116  are employed within a serving area  103  and aggregate to a common serving area interface  118  (pedestal/cabinet) of the feeder/distribution system  106 . All active residential and business service wires  110  terminate in the serving area interface  118  and are connected to the telephone company&#39;s remote transmission equipment  120  via a multi pair splice cable  122  also making up the feeder/distribution system  106 . The remote transmission equipment  120  is where the low voice frequencies (300-3400 hz), and in some cases, high data frequencies (20 Khz-16 Ghz) are digitized for transmission to the telephone company&#39;s central office  124  using a communications transport system made up of a multi-pair feeder cable network  126 .  
     [0028] Referring to FIG. 2, this illustration demonstrates one method of delivering broadband wireless to various service areas  102  within a wire center  101 . Within each feeder/distribution system  106 , a wireless terminal node  201  is connected to the serving area interface  118  through a multi-pair splice cable  206 . Each service area  103  targeted for broadband over the distribution network  114  may be equipped with a wireless terminal node  201  to supply broadband Internet access to the service wires  110  of homes and offices within the development area  112 . The wireless terminal node may be equipped with a duplex broadband microwave transceiver  202 . These transceivers transmit and receive radio signals to and from a microwave aggregation point  208  located outside of the proximity of the wire center. These aggregation points  208  are used to interconnect a wire center to the Internet through a transport backbone  204 , and may be deployed in a redundant manner to provide added broadband capacity and route diversity.  
     [0029] Referring now to FIG. 3, a block diagram showing a portion  300  of the communications system  200  including a terminal node  202  according to preferred embodiments of the present invention. FIG. 3 shows interconnections between the customer premise  302 , serving area interface  118  and the terminal node  202 . Terminal node  202  includes a metal enclosure (Channell Corporation—Rhino enclosure-R4818AC1S00077), Micro-power system (Hendry 1RU 800 Watts Switch Rectifier 14.7A-OSMF400-2-50; 1RU VDC Power Dist. Panel-OIEGMT70R), passive line filtering device  310  (Coming  192  channel ADSL POTS Splitter-SR192A233-24000), and a DSL multiplexer  312  (ADTRAN TA 3000 1181001L1 and associated ADSL interfaces). Included in some preferred embodiments of the present invention is the Terminal Node Communication Pod  318  ( 7 ′ pedestal and high porosity Bell Cap—CN1351), with packet switching system  314  (UT-StarCom/Issanni 500) and a broadband packet radio system (YDI-EX-1 ODU). All components are interconnected using industry standard interfaces.  
     [0030] From the customer premise  302 , a DSL modem  304  is connected to the service wire  110  run through out the premise. Both a Personal Computer  306  and telephone  308  is connected to the DSL modem  304  that extend to the wireless terminal node  202  over the service wire  110  connected through the distribution network  114  to the serving area interface  118 . From the serving area interface  118  the service wires are connected to the multi-pair cable  206  that extend to the passive line splitters  310  located in the wireless terminal node  202 . The line splitter  310  separates the low band voice frequencies (300-3400 Hz) from the high data frequencies (20 KHz-16 GHz) on the home or business service wires  110 . Low band frequencies are passed back to the serving area interface  118  over a return pair of the multi-pair cable  206  that terminate to wire pairs that extend over the multi-pair splice cable  122  to the remote transmission equipment  120 . Voice calls set up via the telephone  308  will traverse transparently through the wireless terminal node  202  and will connect over the feeder cable network  126  to the telephone company central office  124  to get to the PSTN. The high band data frequencies propagated to and from the customer premise DSL modem  304  to the wireless terminal node over the same wired distribution network  114  as the voice frequencies to the line splitters  310  where high frequencies are diverted to the DSL multiplexer  312  where data is extracted and sent over Cat 5 Ethernet cable to a localized packet router  314  for transmission, over the packet radio  316  located in the communications pod  318  for distribution over the broadband microwave link  204  to a common aggregation point  208  for transport to the Internet.  
     [0031]FIG. 4 is a combined block diagram of the wiring configuration in the service access interface  118  cabinet of a communications system  200 . This diagram shows the jumper wire configuration of the service wire pairs to the wireless terminal node  202  and the remote transmission equipment  120  making up the feeder/distribution system  106 .  
     [0032] The basic hard-wired configuration for standard voice service requires the customer premise service wires  110  enter the service area interface  118  from the distribution network cable  114  and connect directly to the telephone company&#39;s remote transmission system  120 . The service wires  110  are terminated on the incoming or distribution side of the service area interface  118  on binder pair  402 , 404 . Jumper wires  406 , 408  are installed by field forces, between  402 ,  404  and outgoing binder pairs  408 , 410  of the feeder side of the service area interface  118 , physically establishing continuity the home or office to the telephone company&#39;s remote transmission system  120  over the multi-pair cable  122 .  
     [0033] To enable the local broadband wireless access communications system  200  customer premise service wires  110  enter the service area interface  118  from the distribution network cable  114  and connect directly to the wireless terminal node  202 . The service wires  110  are terminated on the incoming or distribution side of the service areas interface  118  on binder pair  402 ,  404  are installed by field forces, between  402 ,  404  and outgoing binder pair  416 , 418  of the interconnection cable  206 , physically establishing continuity the home or office to the wireless terminal  202  over the mulit-pair cable  206 . Additionally, another pair of jumper wire pairs connected in the service area interface  118  from the wireless terminal binder pair  424 , 426  from interconnection cable  206 , pair  420 , 422  to the distribution binder pair  408 , 410  to establish voice frequency continuity to the remote transmission system  120  for connection to the central office  124 .