Equipment for femtocell telecommunications system

Abstract

A femtocell telecommunication system equipment comprising: a base apparatus structured to provide a first information signal and control signals; an electrical conductor based transmission line connected to said base apparatus; a bidirectional conversion apparatus adapted to receive/transmit from/on the transmission line the first signal and the control signals; the bidirectional apparatus comprising: a processing module structured to process the first signal to generate a second information signal and vice-versa; the second signal being adapted to be transmitted/received by an antenna device connectable to the bidirectional apparatus.

1 . A femtocell telecommunication system equipment comprising:
 a base apparatus structured to perform modulation/demodulation and coding/decoding and provide a first information signal and control signals;   an electrical conductor based transmission line connected to said base apparatus;   a bidirectional conversion apparatus adapted to receive/transmit from/on the transmission line ( 105 ) the first signal and the control signals; the bidirectional conversion apparatus being external and remotely located with respect the base apparatus and including:   a tunable processing module structured to perform frequency translation and power shaping of the first signal to obtain a second information signal and viceversa; the second signal being adapted to be transmitted/received by an antenna device connectable to the bidirectional apparatus and having a higher frequency allocation and the same bandwidth with respect to the first signal;   a control unit adapted to receive the control signals from said remote base apparatus on the said transmission line and send to the tunable processing module corresponding configuration signals setting operating behaviour of the processing module.   
     
     
         2 . The equipment according to  claim 1 , wherein the electrical conductor based transmission line includes at least one of the following lines: twisted pair telephone line, coaxial cable, transmission line employing power line. 
     
     
         3 . The equipment according to  claim 1 , wherein:
 the tunable processing module comprises a frequency conversion module adapted to perform a bandwidth conversion from the first signal to the second signal and vice-versa based on at least one synchronization reference signal;   the control unit being adapted to provide said at least one synchronization reference signal obtained from the control signals.   
     
     
         4 . The equipment according to at least one of the preceding  claim 2 , wherein the tunable processing module is structured to selectively assume a time division duplex, TDD, operating mode and a frequency division duplex, FDD, operating mode and an echo cancelling duplex operating mode; said duplex operating modes are independently configured for first signal and second signal by configuration signals comprising first setting signals to perform switching of the processing modules from one to another of said duplex operating modes and to set operating parameters of the selected modes. 
     
     
         5 . The equipment according to  claim 1 , wherein the processing module further comprises a power spectral shaping processing module and said configuration signals comprising second setting signals to set parameters of the power spectral shaping processing module. 
     
     
         6 . The equipment according to  claim 3 , wherein the frequency conversion module comprises:
 a frequency synthesizer for receiving said at least one synchronization reference signal and generate first and a second local tones;   a first mixing circuit based on said first local tone to perform a bandwidth up-conversion of the first signal towards the second signal;   a second mixing circuit based on the second local tone to perform a bandwidth down-conversion of the second signal towards the first signal.   
     
     
         7 . The equipment according to  claim 4 , wherein the tunable processing module includes:
 at least one first tunable band-pass filter associated with an uplink communication;   at least one second tunable band-pass filter associated with a downlink communication;   wherein said first setting signals are configured to adjust the at least one first tunable filter and the at least one second tunable filter.   
     
     
         8 . The equipment according to  claim 5 , wherein said power spectral shaping processing module comprises:
 a first power spectral module structured to compensate amplitude attenuation and/or spectral distortion to provide a compensated signal starting from which to obtain the second signal compatible to be transmitted by the antenna device;   a second power spectral module structured to compensate amplitude attenuation and/or spectral distortion to provide a further compensated signal starting from which to obtain the first signal spectrally compatible to be transmitted towards the transmission line.   
     
     
         9 . The equipment according to  claim 8 , wherein said power spectral processing module ( 409 ,  433 ) comprises: an analog-to-digital converter, a digital filter, and a digital-to-analog converter,
 and wherein said second setting signals are adapted to configure coefficients defining the digital filter.   
     
     
         10 . The equipment according to  claim 9 , wherein said power spectral processing module comprises a memory for digital signals,
 and wherein said second setting signals are adapted to configure delays of timing of the digital-to-analog converter.   
     
     
         11 . The equipment according to  claim 1 , wherein the base apparatus is structured to provide a further first information signal and further control signals; and wherein the equipment also includes:
 a further electrical conductor based transmission line connected to said base apparatus;   a further bidirectional conversion apparatus adapted to receive/transmit from/on the further transmission line the further first information signal; the further bidirectional conversion apparatus being external and remotely located with respect the base apparatus; the further bidirectional conversion apparatus being independently operated from said bidirectional conversion apparatus.   
     
     
         12 . The equipment according to  claim 11 , wherein the further bidirectional conversion apparatus includes:
 a further tunable processing module structured to perform frequency translation and power shaping of the further first signal to obtain a further second information signal and viceversa; the further second signal being adapted to be transmitted/received by a further antenna device connectable to the further bidirectional apparatus and having a higher frequency allocation and the same bandwidth with respect to the further first signal;   a further control unit adapted to receive the further control signals from said remote base apparatus on the said further transmission line and send to the further tunable processing module corresponding further configuration signals setting operating behaviour of the further processing module.