Patent ID: 7558528

Claim:
A translating bi-directional packet repeater for a wireless network, comprising: (a) a first antenna and a second antenna; (b) a path switching circuit coupled to the first antenna and the second antenna, said path switching circuit selecting one of the first antenna and the second antenna for use in receiving a wireless signal comprising data packets on a first channel, and selecting the other of the first antenna and the second antenna to retransmit the data packets as another wireless signal on a second channel that is different than the first channel, within a predefined time; (c) a down converter and first gain stage selectively coupled to said one of the first antenna and the second antenna by the path switching circuit, said first gain stage amplifying the wireless signal that is received to produce an amplified received signal that is input to the down converter for down converting to an intermediate frequency; (d) an up converter and second gain stage selectively coupled to the other of the first antenna and the second antenna by the path switching circuit, said second gain stage amplifying an output of the up converter to produce an output signal that is retransmitted; and (e) a filter coupled between the down converter and the up converter, wherein said path switching circuit receives a packet of the wireless signal on said first channel through said one of the first antenna and the second antenna for selective input to the first gain stage, and then couples the output signal from the second gain stage to the other of the first antenna and the second antenna, retransmitting the packet on the second channel with a delay that is substantially less than a required acknowledgement period for the wireless signal.