Digital capacity centric distributed antenna system

Abstract

Disclosed herein is an architecture for a Digital Capacity Centric Distributed Antenna System (DCC-DAS) that dynamically manages and distributes resources in different locations where there is demand for capacity. The DCC-DAS also allows for the routing of resources to other applications such as location finding devices, jamming devices, repeaters, etc.

We claim: 
     
         1 . A digital distributed antenna system (DAS) comprising:
 a plurality of remote radio units (RRUs) in communication with mobile devices; a central hub coupled to the RRUs; and   a digital filter bank comprising one or more digital filters, each digital filter being matched to a unique cell resource, a cell resource including a band of contiguous frequencies within a frequency spectrum and including at least one or more downlink RF signals being received from one or more base transceiver stations (BTS's); and wherein the DAS multiplexes one or more downlink RF signals, digitizes the one or more downlink signals, and filters the digitized one or more downlink signals on a cell resource basis with a digital filter bank, wherein each filter in the digital filter bank is allocated a distinct individual transfer function to match the cell resource it is filtering, and   wherein the central hub routes the resulting digitized filtered cell resources to one or more appropriate RRUs according to pre-programmed routines in the central hub to provide individual routing of each cell resource to RRUs for transmission to their mobile devices.   
     
     
         2 . The digital DAS according to  claim 1 , wherein an amount of downlink data and noise routed to the RRUs by the central hub is reduced by routing only the digital filtered cell resources and not all of the RF spectrum assigned to the one or more downlink signals. 
     
     
         3 . A digital distributed antenna system (DAS) comprising:
 a plurality of base transceiver stations (BTS's);   a central hub coupled to the BTS's; and   a digital filter bank comprising one or more digital filters, each digital filter being matched to a unique cell resource, a cell resource including a band of frequencies within a frequency spectrum and including at least one or more signals being received from one or more mobile devices; and   wherein the DAS multiplexes one or more uplink RF signals, digitizes the one or more uplink signals, and filters the digitized one or more uplink signals on a cell resource basis with a digital filter bank, wherein each filter in the digital filter bank is allocated a distinct individual transfer function to match the cell resource it is filtering, and   wherein the central hub routes the resulting digitized filtered cell resources to one or more appropriate BTS's according to pre-programmed routines in the central hub to provide individual routing of each cell resource to BTS's.   
     
     
         4 . The digital DAS according to  claim 1 , wherein the DAS provides gain to at least one or more cell resources. 
     
     
         5 . The digital DAS according to  claim 3 , wherein the one or more uplink signals are received at the DAS from a plurality of remote radio units (R Us) digitized and coupled to the central hub, and from there distributed to the BTS's, each RRU in communication with one or more mobile devices. 
     
     
         6 . The digital DAS according to  claim 3 , wherein an amount of uplink data and noise routed to the BTS's by the central hub is reduced by routing only the filtered cell resources and not all of the RF spectrum assigned to the one or more uplink signals. 
     
     
         7 . The digital DAS according to  claim 6 , wherein additional uplink noise measurements and/or estimation functions are performed in each digital filter correlated to each cell resource in the digital filter bank. 
     
     
         8 . The digital DAS according to  claim 7 , wherein an alarm is sent to the DAS whenever a noise level measured in one or more of the cell resources in the digital filter bank exceeds a predefined threshold value. 
     
     
         9 . The digital DAS according to  claim 7 , wherein a different routing and/or transfer function may be allocated to a digital filter when excessive noise is measured and/or estimated in said digital filter. 
     
     
         10 . A method for routing cell resources through a central hub of a digital distributed antenna system (DAS) coupled to a plurality of remote radio units (RRUs), the method comprising:
 receiving and multiplexing one or more downlink RF signals from one or more base transceiver stations (BTS's);   digitizing the one or more downlink signals;   filtering the one or more digitized downlink signals on a cell resource basis using a digital filter bank comprising one or more digital filters, each digital filter being matched to a unique cell resource, a cell resource including a band of contiguous frequencies within a frequency spectrum and including at least one or more RF signals being received from one or more BTS's; and   routing the filtered cell resources to the one or more RRUs according to pre-programmed routines in the central hub to provide individual routing of each cell resource to RRUs for transmission to their mobile devices.