The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jun. 14, 2011
Filed:
Dec. 28, 2007
Simon Gale, Bishops Stortford, GB;
Andrew Urquhart, Bishops Stortford, GB;
Simon Gale, Bishops Stortford, GB;
Andrew Urquhart, Bishops Stortford, GB;
Nortel Networks Limited, Mississauga, ON, CA;
Abstract
Embodiments of the invention relate to wireless communications networks, and more specifically to an antenna apparatus for cellular wireless systems. Increasing data capacity of cellular wireless systems places increasing demands on the capacity of the two way connection, known as backhaul, between a cellular base station and a telecommunications network such as the PSTN backhaul, since this is the connection that has to convey the wireless-originating traffic to its destination, often in an entirely different network. Known backhaul links include leased lines, microwave links, optical fiber links or radio resources for relaying backhaul traffic between base stations. The fixed line solutions are expensive to implement and maintain, while the radio solutions antenna configurations that are not ideal for relaying data between base stations. In embodiments of the invention, communication between base stations occurs in a first timeslot by use of a first antenna system and communication between a given base station and a user equipment occurs in a second timeslot using a second antenna system. The benefit of this method is that the first antenna system can be optimized for use in communication between base stations, whereas the second antenna system can be optimized for communication with user equipment which preferably occurs within the area of cellular wireless coverage of the sector served by the second antenna system.