A
system and method is disclosed for increasing the efficiency of a
cellular communication network, reduce ongoing operating costs and increase revenue. According to one aspect, a method is disclosed for increasing the efficiency of a
cellular communication network whereby network capacity in the
radio access network (RAN) and
baseband processing for
wireless connections are dynamically adjusted to automatically provision sufficient bandwidth and
baseband processing capacity in response to changes in the network. The method is further extended by implementing policy management which allows
wireless carriers to develop and implement network based policies to automatically increase or decrease the amount of
processing resources and network bandwidth required from any
cell site, hub or mobile switching office. According to another aspect, network efficiency is enhanced by utilizing a novel
cellular network infrastructure. RF signals from
cell site antennas of various technology types are demodulated, digital bit information is extracted from the RF signals, processed, and groomed into
Gigabit Ethernet /
Resilient Packet Ring (GigE / RPR) or
Ethernet over
copper traffic flows using specific
Quality of Service (QoS) priorities. The GigE / RPR traffic flows are routed to hub sites or mobile switching offices, at which point the packetized information is extracted and converted to RF signals that are equivalent to the signals that were received at the antenna. The RF signals are sent over
coaxial cable to a network hub including a
pool of Base
Transceiver Stations (BTSs) (or Node Bs). The hub is coupled to one or more mobile switching offices via a second
fiber optic ring.