Relay Station Signal Regeneration for Wireless Range Extension
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Solution Overview
Problem
Wireless communication systems face challenges in maintaining reliable transmission quality for remote units within the communication range, especially due to issues like shadow fading and increased data transmission rates that require higher bandwidth, often leading to impaired service without a corresponding increase in transmission power.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of a method and apparatus that utilize relay devices to automatically determine and allocate wireless relay resources to enhance the quality of service for remote units, including automatic relaying, store-and-forward operations, and adaptive re-modulation and re-coding of transmissions, allowing for improved data transmission rates without increasing power usage.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If data transmission rates are increased to meet performance demands, then bandwidth is increased, but transmission power must also increase significantly to maintain service quality
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a relay station as an intermediary device between the remote communication unit and the base station. The relay station receives signals from the remote unit, processes them (demodulation, decoding, re-encoding, re-modulation), and forwards them to the base station. This intermediary approach allows the remote unit to operate at lower power levels while still achieving high data transmission rates through the relay's processing capabilities and better channel conditions to the base station.
2Reliability
If transmission power is increased to maintain service quality for remote units, then communication reliability is improved, but energy consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The relay station acts as a mediator that receives weak signals from remote units operating at low power, regenerates them through demodulation and decoding, and retransmits them with sufficient power to the base station. This ensures reliable service quality without requiring the remote unit to consume excessive energy for transmission.
3Length of stationary object
If repeaters are used to extend communication range, then transmission range is increased, but system complexity and autonomous operation limitations arise
Solution Approach 1:
The relay station provides a more sophisticated alternative to simple repeaters. Instead of merely repeating signals, the relay station performs demodulation, decoding, error correction, and re-encoding operations. This intermediary approach extends communication range while providing intelligent signal processing that simple repeaters cannot achieve, justifying the increased complexity through superior performance.
Solution Approach 2:
The relay station changes the parameters of the transmitted signal by demodulating to baseband, decoding to recover data, re-encoding with potentially different coding schemes, and re-modulating with different modulation formats. These parameter changes allow optimization of signal quality and range extension while adapting to different channel conditions.
Data Source
AI summary
Communications sourced by a remote unit (14) that is already within reception range of a base site (10) can nevertheless be further facilitated through allocation of one or more relay resources (15, 16). Such relay resources, properly employed, then serve to effectively increase the quality of service for the facilitated communication. This, in turn, can permit the use of, for example, increased data rates for communications from a relatively low power remote unit.