Title of Invention

MEHTOD FOR REMOTE MAINTENANCE OF REPEATER AND APPARATUS THEREOF

Abstract

The present invention discloses a method for remote maintenance of repeater; said method deploys a radio communication module that transceives radio signals through up/down channels of the repeater in the repeater; the network allocates an identification number to the repeater; a radio communication link is established between the network and the repeater through a simplified mobile station communication method and protocol; the radio communication module receives RF signals from downlink of the repeater, processes the signals to obtain operation and maintenance data, and transmits the data to the operation and maintenance unit of the repeater to carry out operation and maintenance for the repeater; the communication module processes operation and maintenance data created by the repeater and to be reported to the network into uplink RF. signals and feeds the signals into the repeater through the uplink; then the signals are transmitted to the base station. Above method can implement cost-efficient and reliable remote maintenance for repeaters and has no requirement for environment of the repeaters. The present invention also discloses an apparatus for remote maintenance of repeater.

Full Text

1 METHOD FOR REMOTE MAINTENANCE OF REPEATER AND APPARATUS THEREOF Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method for remote maintenance of communication devices and an apparatus thereof in mobile communication systems, particularly to a method for maintenance of repeater and an apparatus thereof in mobile communication systems. Background of the Invention Repeaters are common frequency amplifying devices. They are radio transmitting devices designed to amplify signals during radio transmission process and are mainly used to cover blind areas and suburb areas in the systems. Repeaters are widely employed in conventional mobile communication systems to solve covering problem. In downlink direction, the signals are picked up from existing coverage area by the donating antenna; and out-of-band signals are filtered off from the signals via a band pass filter; then the filtered signals are amplified via a power amplifier and then retransmitted to the area to be covered; in uplink direction, signals from mobile stations in the coverage area are processed similarly and then retransmitted to corresponding base station; so that signal transmission between base station and mobile stations is implemented. Since the performance of repeaters has direct influence on effective signal coverage of the entire base station, to ensure normal operation of the network, it is urgent task for the network to carry out remote operation and 2 maintenance for repeaters and process failure alarm messages from repeaters in time and adjust working parameters of repeaters as required. Since the conventional repeaters don't support remote maintenance, on-site maintenance is required, which will inevitably result in increased maintenance costs and low efficiency. Summary of the Invention An object of the present invention is to provide a cost-efficient, reliable and adaptive method and apparatus for remote maintenance of repeaters. To attain said object, the method for remote maintenance of repeater according to the present invention comprises: (1) Configuring a communication module that transceives radio signals in the repeater via the uplink and downlink channels thereof, said module receiving RF signals from the base station via the downlink of the repeater and feeding uplink RF signals generated from which into the repeater via the uplink thereof , then transmitting said signals to the base station; (2) Detecting downlink RF signals from the base station, accomplishing downlink receiving synchronization, and keeping on receiving network broadcasting messages and paging messages; (3) The network initiating paqing to the communication module embedded in the repeater via the base station; (4) The communication module receiving the paging messages and initiating an access procedure to establish a bi-directional radio communication link between the repeater 3 control entity and the repeater; (5) The network transmitting operation and maintenance messages controlling the repeater to the repeater via the downlink communication link; when receiving said messages, the repeater performing corresponding maintenance operations and reporting the result to the network via the uplink communication link. The method also comprises: The network allocating an identification number to the communication module embedded in the repeater connected with the network; said identification number being used to identify said repeater and establish the communication link between the network and the communication module embedded in the repeater, in order to implement remote maintenance of the repeater. After accomplishing maintenance and control of the repeater, the network releases said bi-directional radio communication link between the network and the repeater. An apparatus for remote maintenance of repeaters according to the present invention comprises: a downlink receiving channel module, a uplink transmitting channel module, and a RLC (Radio Link Control) and radio resource management module, wherein: The downlink receiving channel module is designed to receive RF signals from the base station via the downlink of the base station, accomplish the processing for downlink signal receiving on the physical layer, and obtain downloaded messages on the control channel and the traffic channel which carries maintenance messages from the network; -4 The uplink transmitting channel module is designed to carry out transmission processing for uploaded messages on the control channel and traffic channel {carrying maintenance feedback messages of the repeater) on the physical layer, generate uplink RF signals, and feed the signals to the repeater via the uplink thereof, then transmit the signals to the base station; The RLC and radio resource management module is designed to implement MAC (Media Access Control) , RLC, radio resource management, and provide an interface to operation and maintenance module of the repeater; wherein, MAC implements mapping of logic channel and transmission channel, multiplexing and de-multiplexing, and transmission format selection according to the traffic volume; RLC implements data segmentation and reassembly, in-sequence delivery, error correction, duplicate detection, and flow control; radio resource management module implements radio link establishment and release, radio bearer establishment and release, radio resource allocation/reallocation/release; the interface to operation and maintenance module of the repeater implements remote maintenance data transmission of the network to the operation and maintenance module and receiving of operation and maintenance response data from the repeater. Said downlink receiving channel module comprises down-conversion and A/D (Analog to Digital) conversion unit and base-band receiving and processing unit; wherein: The down-conversion and A/D conversion unit is designed to receive RF signals from the repeater via the downlink and carry out down conversion and A/D conversion for the signals 5 to form digital base-band signals; The base-band receiving and processing unit is designed to carry out matched filtering, demodulation, and channel decoding for digital base-band signals to obtain downloaded control channel and traffic channel messages, and transmit the data to the RLC and radio resource management module. Said uplink transmitting channel module comprises D/A (Digital to Analog) conversion and up-conversion unit and base-band transmission processing unit; wherein: The base-band transmission processing unit is designed to carry out channel encoding, modulation, and shaping and filtering for uploaded messages on the control channel and the traffic channel The D/A conversion and up-conversion unit is designed to carry out D/A conversion and frequency conversion for modulated data from the base-band transmission processing unit to form uplink RF signals and feed the signals into the repeater via the uplink, and then transmit to the base station. The invention deploys a radio communication module in the repeater; said module transceives radio signals via up and down channels of the repeater and establishes a radio communication link between the repeater and the control entity of the repeater with communication protocol of the mobile station so that the network can distribute remote maintenance messages to the repeater via said link to implement remote maintenance of the repeater. Said radio communication module is allocated with a specific identification number by the network so that it can establish the radio link with the standard protocol of the mobile station. Compared with common 6 mobile stations, said communication module is much simpler in implementation. Since said radio communication module transceives radio signals via up and down channels of the repeater, RF power amplifier and RF filter can be omitted, thus the costs are reduced; since the RF signals between the repeater and the base station are transmitted through directional radio transmission or optical fiber transmission, which has good signal propagation conditions, signal receiving can be simplified and implementing complexity can be reduced; since said radio communication module only keeps communication linkage to a fixed cell of the base station in one communication process, sophisticated operations (e.g., soft handover, handover-related measurement) can be omitted; since the link is only used to transmit data messages, higher-level service processing functions (e.g., voice processing) are unnecessary. As a result, cost-efficient and reliable remote maintenance of repeaters can be implemented. Brief Description of the Drawings Fig.l is a flow diagram of maintaining repeaters according to the method of the present invention; Fig. 2 is a block diagram of an embodiment of the apparatus according to the present invention; Fig. 3 is a block diagram of the repeater that utilizes the embodiment shown in Fig.2. Detailed Description of the Embodiments The invention substantially relates to configuring a radio communication module in the repeater; said module is similar 7 to a simplified mobile station in functionality but doesn't need RF power amplifier and RF filtering unit in a common mobile station; neither does it need higher-level service functions such as voice processing. With reliable radio or optical fiber propagation conditions between the repeater and the base station, the radio resource management function of said communication module can be simplified to a certain degree. Compared with common mobile stations , the communication module is simpler and lower in cost. Since the radio communication module integrated in the repeater has to establish, maintain, and release the radio communication link with a standard mobile station protocol, it is required that the network should allocate a specific identification number for the repeater. Above radio communication module receives downlink RF signals from the downlink output end of the repeater (e.g., output end of the filter), carries out downlink receiving processing, and feeds the generated uplink RF signals into the repeater from the uplink input end of the repeater (e.g. , input end of low-noise power amplifier) ; the RF signals are then transmitted to the base station via the uplink of the repeater. The radio communication module can implement physical layer functions, MAC function, RLC function, and radio resource management function of radio interface in a mobile communication system, and it provides an interface to the operation and maintenance entity of the repeater to transmit operation and maintenance messages of the repeater. In detail, the physical layer functions implemented by said radio communication module comprise processing procedures for downlink signal receiving on the physical layer and processing 8 procedures for uplink signal transmission on the physical layer; wherein the processing procedures for downlink signal receiving on the physical layer comprises picking up RF signals from the base station from the downlink output end of the repeater (e.g., output end of the filter) and carry out frequency conversion, A/D conversion, receiving digital filtering, digital base-band demodulation, and channel decoding for the RF signals to obtain messages of downlink traffic channel (carrying maintenance messages of the network) and control channel; the processing procedures for uplink signal transmission on the physical layer carry out channel encoding, digital base-band modulation, transmission shaping and filtering, D/A conversion, and frequency conversion for messages of uplink traffic channel (carrying maintenance feedback messages of repeater) and control channel to form uplink RF signals and feed the signals into the repeater from the uplink input end of the repeater (e.g., input end of the low-noise amplifier) ; then the signals are transmitted to the base station. Said MAC functional entity implemented by the radio communication module complies with MAC protocol standard of the mobile communication system; it interfaces to the physical layer functional entity in downward direction and interfaces to the RLC functional entity in upward direction and implements such functions as mapping of logic channel and transmission channel, channel multiplexing and de-multiplexing, and transmission format selection according to traffic volume. Said RLC functional entity implemented by the radio management module complies with RLC protocol standard of the 9 mobile communication system; it interfaces to the MAC entity in downward direction and interfaces to the radio resource management functional entity in upward direction and implements such functions as data segmentation/reassembly, In-sequence delivery, error correction, duplicate detection, and flow control. Said radio resource management functional entity implemented by the radio management module complies with the radio resource management protocol standard of the mobile communication system; it interfaces to the RLC functional entity in downward direction and interfaces to the operation and maintenance functional entity of the repeater in upward direction and implements such functions as radio link establishment and release, radio bearer establishment and release, and radio resource allocation, reallocation and release of said simplified mobile station, and provides a data communication interface to the operation and maintenance functional entity of the repeater. Hereunder the present invention will be described in further detail with reference to the attached drawings. Fig.lisa flow diagram of maintaining the repeater according to the method of the present invention. The maintenance of the repeater shown in Fig.l is accomplished on the basis of above radio communication module. First, in step 1, said module accomplishes downlink receiving synchronization and listens to broadcasting and paging from the network; in step 2, in response to the paging to the module initiated by the network, the module initiates an access procedure to establish a radio communication link; in step 10 3, the network distributes maintenance data for the repeater; in step 4, the repeater receives the maintenance data via the module and implements maintenance operations; in step 5, the repeater feeds back operation and maintenance result to the network via the module; in step 6, above radio communication link is released. Fig. 2 is a block diagram of an embodiment of the apparatus according to the present invention. The repeater maintenance apparatus shown in Fig . 2 comprises : downlink receiving channel module 1, uplink transmission channel module 2, and RLC and radio resource management module 3 . Said apparatus communicates with the network through a standard mobile station communication protocol. In application, it is integrated with the repeater and picks up RF signals from the repeater and processes them (for example, it may pick up RF signals from output end of the band pass filter in downlink direction) to receive downlink signals from the base station; in addition, said apparatus feeds the generated RF signals to the uplink of the repeater (e.g., the low noise amplifier in uplink direction) ; then the signals are processed by the repeater and then transmitted to the base station. In detail: The downlink receiving channel module is designed to receive RF signals from the base station via the downlink thereof, accomplish the processing for downlink signal receiving on the physical layer, and obtain downloaded messages on the control channel and the traffic channel (carrying maintenance messages from the network); The uplink transmitting channel module is designed to carry out transmission processing for uploaded messages on the 11 control channel and traffic channel (carrying maintenance feedback messages of the repeater) on the physical layer, generate uplink RF signals, and feed the signals to the repeater via the uplink thereof, then transmit the signals to the base station; The RLC and radio resource management module is designed to implement MAC function, RLC function, radio resource management function, and provide an interface to operation and maintenance module of the repeater; wherein, MAC implements mapping of logic channel and transmission channel, channel multiplexing and de-multiplexing, and transmission format selection according to the traffic volume; RLC implements data segmentation and reassembly, in-sequence delivery, error correction, duplicate detection, and flow control; radio resource management module implements radio link setup and release, radio bearer setup and release, radio resource allocation, reallocation and release; the interface to operation and maintenance module of the repeater implements remote maintenance data transmission to the operation and maintenance module and response data receiving from the repeater. Above downlink receiving channel module 1 comprises down conversion and A/D unit 11 and base-band receiving and processing unit 12; wherein: The down conversion and A/D conversion unit is designed to receive RF signals from the repeater via the downlink thereof and carry out down conversion and A/D conversion for the signals to form digital base-band signals; The base-band receiving and processing unit is designed 12 to carry out matched filtering, demodulation, and channel decoding for the received digital base-band signals to obtain downloaded messages on the control channel and the traffic channel (carrying maintenance messages from the network) , and transmit the messages to the RLC and radio resource management module. Above uplink transmitting channel module 2 comprises D/A conversion and up-conversion unit 21 and base-band transmission processing unit 22; wherein: The base-band transmission processing unit is designed to carry out channel encoding, modulation, and shaping and filtering for uploaded messages on the control channel and the traffic channel; The D/A conversion and up-conversion unit is designed to carry out D/A conversion and frequency conversion for modulated data from the base-band transmission processing unit to form uplink RF signals and feed the signals into the uplink of the repeater, and then transmit said signals to the base station. The maintenance apparatus of the repeater shown in Fig.2 has to be embedded in the repeater (between uplink and downlink of the repeater and the operation and maintenance unit of the repeater) in actual application, as shown in Fig.3. In Fig.3, the module is connected to output end of the downlink filter and input end of uplink low noise amplifier. During the maintenance operation, the donating antenna picks up RF signals from the base station in the existing coverage area and transmits the signals to the maintenance apparatus of the repeater of the present invention via the duplexer, low noise 13 amplifier, frequency range selector, and filter in downlink direction; the apparatus processes the obtained maintenance data of the repeater and accomplishes operation and maintenance for the repeater via the interface to the operation and maintenance unit; the downloaded messages also includes radio communication signaling, which is processed by the radio resource management entity of the apparatus. The apparatus receives the operation and maintenance data to be uploaded from the repeater, adds additional signaling data, and processes the operation and maintenance data into uplink RF signals, and feeds back the signals to the base station via uplink low noise amplifier, frequency range selector, filter, power amplifier, and duplexer and the donating antenna of the repeater. It should be noted that the structure or functionality of the remote maintenance apparatus of the repeater according to the present invention may varies depending on the embedding position of the apparatus in the repeater. In Fig.3, for example, when the downlink access point of the maintenance apparatus is connected to output end of the frequency range selector, a filter module should be added in the maintenance apparatus; when the uplink access point of the maintenance apparatus is connected to input end of the frequency range selector, a low noise amplifier module should be added in the maintenance apparatus. We Claim : 1. A method for remote maintenance of repeater, comprises: (1) Configuring a communication module that transceives radio signals in the repeater via the uplink and downlink channels thereof, said module receiving RF signals from the base station via the downlink of the repeater and feeding uplink RF signals generated from which into the repeater via the uplink thereof, then transmitting said signals to the base station; (2) Detecting downlink RF signals from the base station, accomplishing downlink receiving synchronization, and keeping on receiving network broadcasting messages an messages; (3) The network initiating paging to the communication module embedded in the repeater via the base station; (4) The communication module receiving the paging messages and initiating an access process to establish a bi-directional radio communication link between the repeater control entity and the repeater; (5) The network transmitting operation and maintenance messages controlling the repeater to the repeater via the downlink communication link; when receiving said messages, the repeater performing corresponding maintenance operations and reporting the result to the network via the uplink communication link. 2. A method for remote maintenance of repeater as claimed in claim 1, wherein said method also comprises: the network allocates an identification number to the communication 14 module embedded in the repeater connected with the network, said identification number is used to identify said repeater and establish the communication link between the network and the communication module embedded in the repeater, in order to implement remote maintenance of the repeater. 3. A method for remote maintenance of repeater as claimed in claim 1 or 2, wherein said method also comprises: after accomplishing maintenance and control of the repeater, the network releases said bi-directional radio communication link between the network and the repeater. 4. An apparatus for remote maintenance of repeater, comprising: downlink receiving channel module, uplink transmitting channel module, and RLC (Radio Link Control) and radio resource management module, wherein: The downlink receiving channel module is designed to receive RF signals from the base station via the downlink thereof, accomplish the processing for downlink signal receiving on the physical layer, and obtain downloaded messages on the control channel and the traffic channel which carries maintenance messages from the network; The uplink transmitting channel module is designed to carry out transmission processing for uploaded messages on the control channel and traffic channel which carries maintenance feedback messages of the repeater on the physical layer, generate uplink RF signals, and feed the signals to the repeater via the uplink thereof, then transmit the signals to the base station; The RLC and radio resource management module is designed to implement MAC (Media Access Control), RLC, radio resource 15 management, and provide an interface to operation and maintenance module of the repeater; wherein, MAC implements mapping of logic channel and transmission channel, multiplexing and de-multiplexing of channels, and transmission format selection according to the traffic volume; RLC implements data segmentation and reassembly, in-sequence delivery, error correction, duplicate detection, and flow control; radio resource management module implements radio link establishment and release, radio bearer establishment and release, radio resource allocation/reallocation/release; the interface to operation and maintenance module of the repeater implements remote maintenance data transmission of the network to the operation and maintenance module and receiving of operation and maintenance response data from the repeater. 5. An apparatus for remote maintenance of repeater as claimed in claim 4, wherein said downlink receiving channel module comprises down conversion and A/D (Analog to Digital) conversion unit and base-band receiving and processing unit, herein: The down-conversion and A/D conversion unit is designed to receive RF signals from the repeater via the downlink and carry out down conversion and A/D conversion for the signals to form digital base-band signals; The base-band receiving and processing unit is designed to carry out matched filtering, demodulation, and channel decoding for digital base-band signals to obtain downloaded control channel and traffic channel messages, and transmit the data to the RLC and radio resource management module. 16 6. An apparatus for remote maintenance of repeater as claimed in claim 5, wherein said uplink transmitting channel module comprises D/A (Digital to Analog) conversion and up-conversion unit and base-band transmission processing unit, herein: The base-band transmission processing unit is designed to carry out channel encoding, modulation, and shaping and filtering for uploaded messages on the control channel and the traffic channel; The D/A conversion and up-conversion unit is designed to carry out D/A conversion and frequency conversion for modulated data from the base-band transmission processing unit to form uplink RF signals and feed the signals into the repeater via the uplink thereof, and then transmit to the base station. The present invention discloses a method for remote maintenance of repeater; said method deploys a radio communication module that transceives radio signals through up/down channels of the repeater in the repeater; the network allocates an identification number to the repeater; a radio communication link is established between the network and the repeater through a simplified mobile station communication method and protocol; the radio communication module receives RF signals from downlink of the repeater, processes the signals to obtain operation and maintenance data, and transmits the data to the operation and maintenance unit of the repeater to carry out operation and maintenance for the repeater; the communication module processes operation and maintenance data created by the repeater and to be reported to the network into uplink RF. signals and feeds the signals into the repeater through the uplink; then the signals are transmitted to the base station. Above method can implement cost-efficient and reliable remote maintenance for repeaters and has no requirement for environment of the repeaters. The present invention also discloses an apparatus for remote maintenance of repeater.

Documents:

1518-kolnp-2004-abstract.pdf

1518-kolnp-2004-claims.pdf

1518-kolnp-2004-correspondence.pdf

1518-kolnp-2004-description(complete).pdf

1518-kolnp-2004-drawings.pdf

1518-kolnp-2004-form-1.pdf

1518-kolnp-2004-form-18.pdf

1518-kolnp-2004-form-2.pdf

1518-kolnp-2004-form-3.pdf

1518-kolnp-2004-form-5.pdf

1518-kolnp-2004-letters patent.pdf

1518-kolnp-2004-p.a.pdf