Wireless network infrastructure in that digital processing resources are shared

Abstract

A wireless communication system infrastructure services wireless communications within a service coverage area. A digital enclosure includes a plurality of wireless communication processing components that perform digital processing functions. A plurality of radio enclosures couple to the digital enclosure via communication links and each service wireless communications within a corresponding geographic area of the service coverage area. During operation of the wireless communication system infrastructure, two radio enclosures of the plurality of radio enclosures share a communication processing component of the digital enclosure while jointly servicing a single wireless communication. The two radio enclosures reside at respective geographic locations that are separated by a geographic distance such that each of the radio enclosures services a respective cell. Each of the radio enclosures may service a plurality of sectors that form the cell. The digital enclosure couples to a base station controller, which in turn couples to a mobile switching center and, in some embodiments, to the Internet. Further, the mobile switching center couples to the public switched telephone network. During handoff of the wireless communication in a CDMA system from a first cell to a second cell, a core of the digital enclosure couples a channel element to a plurality of radio enclosures, each of which services a cell/sector(s) participating in the handoff. In one handoff operation in which six-way handoff is performed, the core couples a channel element of the digital enclosure to three radio modules, each of which services two sectors participating in the handoff.