Allocation method and apparatus for reusing network resources in a wireless communication system

Abstract

In a wireless communication system ( ), base stations ( ) are connected to a backbone network ( ) such as a wired LAN and act as access points and relays for remote stations ( ). A remote station registers and performs bidirectional communication with one of the base stations designated as its home base station. Base stations have overlapping coverage areas where a remote station is within reception range of several base stations. Such communication system may for instance be a multicell radio LAN using frequency hopping signaling. The method allows to reuse a limited number of network resources such as frequency hopping patterns and assign the same resource to several active base stations. Upon request from a base station, a network controller ( ) connected to the backbone network computes a distance index between the requesting base station and the other active base stations and assigns to the requesting base station the same network resource as the one assigned to another base station with the highest distance index. Information about cells overlaps is centralized in a control database ( ) and used by the network controller to compute distance indexes.