Encapsulation of independent transmissions over internal interface of distributed radio base station

Abstract

A distributed radio base station () comprises a radio equipment controller (REC) () situated at a main site () and a radio equipment (RE) () situated at a remote site (). A remote unit () configured to engage in direct communications with the radio equipment controller (REC) is also situated at the remote site (). An internal interface () connects the radio equipment controller (REC) and the radio equipment (RE). Advantageously, the internal interface () also encapsulates the direct communications between the radio equipment controller (REC) () and the remote unit, thereby obviating a separate physical link between the radio equipment controller (REC) and the remote unit. A new physical link () transmits, between the radio equipment (RE) and the remote unit, the direct communications between the radio equipment controller (REC) and the remote unit which are encapsulated over the internal interface (). The remote unit can take various differing forms, including that of an antenna () with remote electrical tilt control; a tower mounted amplifier (TMA) (); a Transmission network unit (); a separate radio base station () which is co-located at the remote site; a proprietary equipment unit (); or even one or more cascaded radio equipments (RE) ().