Patent ID: 7460829

Claim:
A wireless communication system, comprising: a control apparatus; at least one relay apparatus connected with said control apparatus via an optical transmission path; and a plurality of wireless communication terminals communicating wirelessly with said at least one relay apparatus, wherein: said control apparatus comprises: a first optical transmitting section for converting a downstream electric signal into a downstream optical signal and transmitting the downstream optical signal to said at least one relay apparatus via the optical transmission path; and a first optical receiving section for converting an upstream optical signal transmitted from said at least one relay apparatus via the optical transmission path into an upstream electric signal, said at least one relay apparatus comprises: a second optical receiving section for converting the downstream optical signal transmitted from said control apparatus via the optical transmission path into the downstream electric signal; a level control section for attenuating a level of the downstream electric signal so as to narrow a communicable area of said at least one relay apparatus and to allow a level of a wireless signal transmitted by one of said wireless communication terminals existing in the communicable area to be within a predetermined range; wherein when said wireless communication terminals use a respective channel, the predetermined range is smaller than a difference between (a) a leakage ratio which is a ratio of a level of a wireless signal using the respective channel with respect to a level of a frequency component leaking to another channel different from the respective channel, and (b) a signal to noise ratio which is a ratio of a level of a leakage signal from a wireless communication terminal using another channel different from the respective channel with respect to the level of the wireless signal using the respective channel; a transmitting/receiving antenna section for transmitting the downstream electric signal converted by said second optical receiving section to said one wireless communication terminal as a wireless signal, and receiving a wireless signal transmitted from said one wireless communication terminal as the upstream electric signal; and a second optical transmitting section for converting the upstream electric signal received by said transmitting/receiving antenna section into the upstream optical signal and transmitting the upstream optical signal to said control apparatus via the optical transmission path.