Patent ID: 8693945

Claim:
A signal repeating system for a wireless network comprising: at least one first antenna configured for transceiving signals with at least one user equipment device; repeating circuitry coupled to the at least one first antenna and defining an uplink path for signals from the user equipment device back to a base station, the repeating circuitry including circuitry for varying the level of signals handled in the uplink path; control circuitry in the repeating circuitry that is operable to control how the level of signals in the uplink path are varied; measurement circuitry for measuring, over time, the receive power in the uplink path in a particular frequency band where traffic is expected from the at least one user equipment device; processing circuitry configured for comparing a signal associated with the uplink path level variation with the measured receive power and for determining if a variation in the uplink path signal level causes a change in the measured receive power in order to detect the existence of traffic from user equipment devices in the uplink path.