FIELD OF INVENTION The present invention relates to a network architecture of an intelligent cloud base station for broadband wireless backhaul technologies used in meshing radio base stations.

BACKGROUND ART Wireless backhaul technologies use high-performance wireless links, such as, point-to-point (PTP) connections to extend connectivity between two locations. Wireless backhaul is the wireless route in a wireless communication system used to obtain data or transmission of network data from an end user to a node. In conventional systems, the access and backhaul network require their own separate transmission equipment, antennas, etc, which is a great cost to the telecommunications operator.

Broadband wireless backhaul technologies have become a key element of cost-effective broadband wireless networks. Wireless communication is preferred over costly-wired connections, such as, fiber optic or Ethernet link. Thus, the selection of an optimum solution for wireless backhaul technology involves considerations of network capacity, expected or required data speed, relative cost, electromagnetic interference, and the availability of radio frequency spectrum space.

Mesh is a known solution to connect computers and communication nodes in different locations. However, a meshing network presents quality of service (QoS) problems, which refer to traffic engineering issues of packet-switched telecommunication networks, as well as, computer networks. Quality of Service problems also includes inflexible and/or non-comprehensive routing, challenging resource allocation, a trade-off between scalability and quality, lack of resiliency, and situation awareness.

To overcome these deficiencies, the present invention created network architecture having a mesh configuration with at least one Cloud base station wherein the Cloud base station includes a Base Station (BS), Master Cloud Arbitrator (M-CA) (200), Cell Site-Cloud Arbitrator (CS-CA) and Backhaul Points (BP). The cloud base station (BS and M-CA/CS-CA) employs an intelligent decision engine for calculating the most efficient route and assigning the best possible resource available. The decision engine of the present invention considers the input from internal and external factors for decision-making. The purpose of having Backhaul Points is to provide a scalable and resilient communication link while maintaining the quality of service (QoS) to the neighboring M-CA/CS-CA/BP. The Backhaul Point of the present invention also uses sensors to send data to Cloud base stations for decision-making.

The subject matter claimed herein is not limited to embodiments that solve any disadvantages or that operate only in environments such as those described above. Rather, this background is only provided to illustrate one exemplary technology area where some embodiments described herein may be practice.

SUMMARY OF INVENTION

The present invention relates to the architecture of a backhaul link for meshing radio base stations. A plurality of backhaul points (BP) including wireless access points (APs) and wireless customer premises equipments (CPEs) are used as the backhaul connection between two radio base stations. The backhaul link has many backhaul points with interfaces that use different technologies, such as, Microwave, WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access), WiFi (Wireless Fidelity), and LTE (Long Term Evolution) based on the physical (PHY) and medium access control (MAC) layers (see, e.g., IEEE 802.16e, IEEE 802.11a protocol). The backhaul link of the present invention meshes radio base stations in a telecommunication network.

WiMAX, LTE and WiFi are known technologies. WiMAX is a wireless technology, which permits carrying of Internet packet data, which is similar to WiFi. WiMAX provides higher performance than WiFi and permits usage over greater distances. For example, the practical range for WiMAX is 5 to 10 kilometers in each direction, i.e., 5 to 20 times higher than WiFi. LTE is a third generation mobile broadband standard and a successor to the Universal Mobile Telecommunication System (UMTS) and CDMA2000, both of which are 3G cellular technologies.

The other wireless technology is WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network) that is also known as WiFi (Wireless Fidelity), which has a smaller coverage than WiMAX. The range of WLAN/WiFi is about 500 to 1000 meters in all directions. The advantage of a BP (AP/CPE-Access Point/Common Platform Enumeration) backhauling system is the low cost of installing each wireless access point. However, the short range of the access points requires that pluralities of Backhaul Points are used to cover the distance of the backhaul link. If any of the access points has a problem routing the backhaul traffic and is unable to serve the backhaul link, an alternative access point relays the traffic instead. A drawback of the conventional system is that the access and backhaul networks require their own separate transmission equipment, antennas, etc. at a great cost to the operator.

To resolve this problem, the present invention uses a mesh network. It is known that mesh networks have service problems, such as, inflexible routing, challenging resource allocation, an imbalance between scalability and quality, and lack of resiliency and situational awareness. One of the aspects of the present invention is to find a cost effective solution for communicating between the base stations and core network. Specifically, the present invention uses a cloud base station to calculate the most efficient route and assign the best resources. The decision engine of the present engine compares and considers input from both internal and external factors for decision-making.

Another aspect of the present invention is a Backhaul Point (BP) to balance scalability with resilient communication while maintaining the QoS. The present invention is concerned with the arrangement of cloud base stations having sensors to transmit data intelligently.

The present invention consists of features and a combination of parts hereinafter fully described and illustrated in the accompanying drawings, it being understood that various changes in the details may be made without departing from the scope of the invention or sacrificing any of the advantages of the present invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF ACCOMPANYING DRAWINGS

To further clarify various aspects of some embodiments of the present invention, a more particular description of the invention will be rendered by references to specific embodiments thereof, which are illustrated in the appended drawings. It is appreciated that these drawings depict only typical embodiments of the invention and are therefore not to be considered limiting of its scope. The invention will be described and explained with additional specificity and detail through the accompanying drawings in which: FIG. 1 illustrates the network architecture of the initialization process used to interconnect remote radio base stations of the backhaul link of the present invention;

FIG. 2 illustrates the Master Cloud Arbitrator (M-CA) of the present invention; FIG. 3 illustrates a preferred example of a Cell Site Cloud Arbitrator (CS-CA) of the present invention;

FIG. 4 illustrates the Backhaul Point (BP) of the presentation invention; FIG. 5 shows a flowchart for the Cell Site Cloud Arbitrator (CS-CA) as part of the Master Cloud Arbitrator (M-CA) of the present invention; and

FIG. 6 shows a flowchart for the Backhaul Point (BP) of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The invention relates to network architecture for intelligent cloud base station. Hereinafter, this specification will describe the present invention according to the preferred embodiments. It is to be understood that limiting the description to the preferred embodiments of the invention is merely to facilitate discussion of the present invention and it is envisioned without departing from the scope of the appended claims.

FIG.1 shows a system architecture (100) of a cloud communication network of the present invention having at least one Master Cloud Arbitrator (M-CA) (200), at least one Cell Site Cloud Arbitrator (CS-CA) (300) and Backhaul Points (BP)

(400) of different wireless and wired technologies that communicate and exchange information by utilizing the security elements within the network. The network elements of the cloud communication network of the present invention includes Connectivity Service Network (CSN), Access Service Network Gateway (ASN-GW), Master Cloud Arbitrator (M-CA) (200), Cell Site Cloud Arbitrator (CS-CA) (300), Backhaul Point (BP) and Base Station (BS), as shown in FIG. 1. Introducing additional network elements to provide further coverage in other areas can easily expand the network. FIG. 1 only shows two clusters of Master Cloud Arbitrators for demonstrative purposes. The M-Cloud Arbitrators are grouped with the nearest base stations to the Access Service Network Gateway, while the Cell Site Cloud Arbitrators (300) are on the opposite side of the base station.

An example of a conventional base station that provides radio connectivity between mobile stations, one or more base transceiver stations, or one or more other base stations is disclosed in International Patent Publication No. WO 02/51018 A2 (hereinafter referred to as the '018 Publication). The nanoCell base station of the Ό18 Publication has one or more transceivers. One of the transceivers provides a base station function, and one of the transceivers provides a mobile station function. A controller manages the transceivers and determines the connectivity paths between the base station and mobile station functions. The '018 Publication discusses a nanoCell base station that provides radio connectivity among one or more mobile stations, one or more base transceiver stations or one or more other nanoCell base stations. The nanoCell base station of the present invention has one or more transceivers. One of the transceivers provides a base station function, and one of the transceivers provides a mobile station function. A controller is present for managing the transceivers and determining the communications connectivity paths between base station and mobile station functions. The nanoCell base station being synchronized to one or more cellular or nanoCell base stations and can act as a relay, collector, concentrator or delay. Connectivity in a network of nanoCell base stations can be configured in a concentrated series of nanoCells, a matrix fashion, or combination of both. Communication paths through a nanoCell base station can be distributed among cellular or nanoCell base stations. The nanoCells may form an in-band backhaul network.

Specifically, in the present invention, each base station provides access for users by using 802.16e (WiMAX) as an air interface for subscribers to access the network, for example. On the other hand, the BP could also become an access point, for example, by employing 802.11 (WiFi) to provide access to the network. Other wireless access technologies, such as, WCDMA, CDMA2000, TD-SDMA, OFDM (A), 802.20, 802.22, and other evolving technologies, may be used as an alternative to WiMAX and WiFi. The BPs are distributed in the network and are equipped with necessary radio equipment to provide communications links between Backhaul Points and also link up base stations in the networks.

The '018 Publication does not provide a meshing network that is deployed through a wireless cloud backhaul technologies, such as, WIMAX, LTE and WIFI which transmits internet packet data between two locations. Another example of a conventional wired cloud backhaul technology is International Patent Publication No. WO 2009/040761 (hereinafter referred to as the '761 Publication). The '761 Publication describes a cellular telecommunication system and a method of operating the same, which comprises a plurality of cellular service providers, mobile virtual network operators and value-added service providers who are able to simultaneously provide their service components to mobile stations which are capable of enabling users to easily choose the providers of their choice, determining or automatically select the most suitable providers as per the provider assignment criteria and service related parameters, which may be defined by users, generated by their mobile stations and / or downloaded from the service providers. Each of the mobile stations used in the present application include a plurality of mobile equipment modules and corresponding SIM cards, antenna, processing unit, at least one display device, a keypad and / or touch screen as inputting means. The cloud network may further include a detachable memory device, power supply module and other subsystems that may include audio transducers, short-ranged wireless communication devices and input-output data ports and interfaces.

The processing unit includes volatile and non-volatile memory devices, controller unit for operating the mobile equipment modules, detachable memory device, inputting means, SIM cards and any audio and data interface drivers. The processing unit is capable of executing low- level and application-level instructions in all associated software necessary to control and manage all the functionalities of all the systems, subsystems, modules, drivers and devices of said mobile station. The conventional system found in the 761 Publication does not provide a meshing network that is deployed through wireless cloud backhaul technologies such as WIMAX, LTE and WIFI which transmits internet packet data between two locations. Numerous examples of related prior art techniques are found in U.S. Patent No. 7,711 ,393; International Patent Application No. PCT/IL2007/000875; U.S. Patent Publication No. 2008/0186858; and International Patent Application No. PCT/US2008/002804. A further discussion of the wireless cloud backhaul technologies found in the present invention is found below.

In FIG. 1 of the present application, only simple vertical and horizontal link connections for the BPs are shown. However, in actual implementation, the connections are not limited to vertical and horizontal links. For example, the BPs could be connected in diagonal way to other Base Stations. This will provide diversity in connections, which will allow many possible paths to connect various Base Stations in the network.

The Base Station and Backhaul Points could be connected by three modes of operation: point- to-point (PTP), point to multipoint (PMP), and multihop mode. PTP is the simplest form of wireless communication. Since these nodes are only allowed to communicate with each other, the protocol can be made simple. For example, the bandwidth in each direction is not shared and the two nodes only need to agree on a duplexing method. This will be the primary mode of connections between BS and its neighboring BPs whereby the BS provide connection towards the core network. Secondly, PMP is a form of communication whereby a single BS is used to provide service to multiple clients or subscriber stations. The BS needs to multiplex the traffic going towards the clients. Similarly the clients need to have a common multiple access method in order to communicate with the base station.

Finally, the BS and BP in the networks are connected in multi-hop fashioned towards ASN-GW. This is because a single hop may not be sufficient in some cases. For example, the core network connectivity may not be available in all possible BS locations due to challenged geographic situation in rural area and also in the case where it would be very costly to implement dedicated links to numerous BS in urban area. Another example is when the connection between two points has no line-of-sight. Mesh, repeaters and relay nodes are examples of multi-hop technologies.

In addition to a wireless MAC protocol, a mesh topology addresses issues, such as, optimal paths, loops in the network, and fault-tolerance. Performance issues including latency also need to be addressed.

M-CA (200) and CS-CA (300) are the important features of the present invention. There are a number of modules inside M-CA and CS-CA. As shown in FIGs. 2 and 3 respectively, Master Cloud (200) and Cell Site Cloud Arbitrators (300) includes a decision engine (202, 302), router (206, 306), IP address distributor (208, 308), security module (218, 318), resource manager (204, 304), database (210, 310), sensors (212, 312, 408), interfaces, management and control plane (214, 314, 406), and physical/virtual execution environment (216, 316, 408). There are two possible implementation scenarios for M-CA (200) and CS-CA (300), namely centralized and distributed intelligent implementation depending on the particular configuration.

Connectivity Service Network (CSN) connects the Internet and other networks as shown in FIG. 1. Users can communicate to different locations using different networks. Some functions of the CSN include AAA proxy or server, mobility management, roaming tunneling support and home agent. The Access Service Network Gateway (ASN-GW) is the bridge between an access network and core network. Some functions of the ASN-GW include data path management, network access, handover, paging control, foreign agent for IPv4 and service flow management. An aspect of the present invention includes a Cell Site Cloud Arbitrator Router (CS-CAR) (306) as shown in FIG. 3. The CS-CAR (306) is the special router in Base Station (BS) Node that provides interfacing to other BS Nodes in the cloud communication network. It sits in between Base Stations or BS and ASN-GW. CS-CAR (306) responsibility is to serve data traffic generated by the network components such as Base Stations, M-CAR (206), BPs, and other CS-CARs (306). The CS-CAR (306) route bearer and control traffic between ASN-GW and BS or between Base Stations that can be more than one hop. Basic capabilities of a CS-CAR (306) are similar to general router functions such as dynamic routing, neighbor's discovery, fault management, load balancing etc.

Master CAR (M-CAR) (206) is the special CAR, which interfaces to ASN-GW. The Master Cloud Arbitrator (200) is shown in detail in FIG. 2. It is the first hop from ASN-GW in the BS Cloud network and it forwards control and data traffic to/from ASN-GW. When more than one CS-CAR (306) is connected directly to ASN-GW, one of the routers will act as master router. Besides the functions of the CS-CAR (306), M-CAR (206) has additional functionalities to manage the other normal CS-CARs (306).

One aspect of the present invention is that the master router that has a different physical connection for their BS Cloud network compared to a conventional BS connection when interfaced properly to ASN-GW(s). M-CAR (206) assures that the ASN-GW "sees" all Base Stations in the cloud network as if they are connected in the conventional manner. The master router manages the cell site routers in the network.

A master cloud routing for a cloud communication network has to serve data traffic generated by the network components, such as, Base Stations, CS-Cloud Arbitrators (300) and BPs (400). The components provide a wide range of services and applications received through the M-CA (200) interfaces, such as, web-browsing, voice telephony, Voice-over-IP (VoIP), video calling, video-streaming, messaging, music/video/other files downloading, interactive online games etc. Each service has different requirements in terms of delay, packet error-rate, buffer size, and/or channel characteristics. In a multi-hop network of the present application, the master cloud routing scheme provides routes that guarantee the requirement constraints from the serving BS to the target BS through ASN-GW, while at the same time optimizing the overall network efficiency. In a plug and play BS Node deployment, the master router also acts as a proxy helping Base Stations to obtain an IP address from the DHCP server that is located in the ASN- GW or CSN network.

Existing BS to ASN-GW interfacing involves BS mapping the network cloud elements Connections Identifier, CID (Between MS and BS) onto Generic Route Encapsulation (GRE) Tunnels (between BS and ASN-gateway) for both downstream and upstream traffic. Encapsulation technique such as GRE is used for Tunnels and the granularity of the tunnel IDs might also vary (e.g., the Tunnel IDs might be assigned per Connection, per MS, per IP Realm, etc.). There is a one-to-one correspondence between the CID and GRE Keys according to per Service Flow granularity. An additional IP header is included to enable IP in IP encapsulation and the ASN-GW terminates the Tunnels from BS.

A Resource Manager (204, 304) is a software module that has direct access to the network interfaces of the host device. It refers to the output of the decision engine and router for calculating the best possible queue and queue manipulation techniques to achieve the desired QoS, as shown in FIG. 5. The components of the resource manager (204, 304) of the present invention are:

(a) The marker that is responsible for tagging the packets that have special QoS requirements;

(b) The shaper that is responsible for dealing with short, uneven (bursty) or unconventional traffic;

(c) The scheduler that essentially controls the outflow of data packets; and

(d) The dropper that identifies the packets that needs to be dropped in order to maintain a high QoS.

An IP distributor (208, 308) of the present invention is a software module responsible for assigning IP addresses from a selected segment to the different elements of the network. The IP distributor (208, 308) may hold a pool of addresses, prefix information, routing information and DNS information. The IP Distributor (208, 308) may work in state-full or state-less mode depending on the configurations made by the network administrator. An example of an IP distributor (208, 308) is the IP Address Distributor in FIG. 2 and FIG. 3 . It is also shown in the Flowchart for Master Cloud Arbitrator and Cell Site Cloud Arbitrator in FIG. 5. The purpose of the security module is to authenticate and build trust amongst the various components of the network architecture. Once authentication is performed between the network elements, various topological and sensor data is exchanged between them. A security mechanism has been implemented in this scenario in order to prevent route poisoning in the network architecture.

The onboard sensors (212, 312, 408) are physical devices responsible for sensing the environmental data and updating the onboard database, shown in FIGs. 2-4. The sensor devices are a single sensor that collects specific information or a grid of sensors working together to collect multiple data. Simple sensor devices sense information, such as, temperature, humidity and so on, while a more complex sensor device includes a GPS sensor or a rain sensor. The sensors may function as physical hardware or a series of algorithm evaluating the performance of the device or network elements. After a security trust has been built amongst the elements of the network architecture, data exchange takes place. The received data is desirably formatted and stored in a database for further processing by the Cloud Arbitrator decision engine (202, 302). The database is also responsible for storing data from the onboard sensor devices. The Cloud Arbitrator decision engine (202, 302) is a software module responsible for retrieving and processing the data from the database for extracting the meaning of the raw data. The meaning gives the host device the ability to build the entire map of the network based on the network data and the environmental data. In FIG. 4, the Cloud Arbitrator Proxy (CAP) of the present invention is an intermediary that exchanges information with the neighboring Cloud Arbitrators (M-CA, CS-CA or BPs). The CAP gathers the sensors' data, seeks resources from M-CA/CS-CA and routing information. CAP connects this information to the relevant Cloud Arbitrators. A CAP has a large variety of purposes, including the process of providing connectivity to the neighboring Cloud Arbitrators by scanning downlink/ uplink channels to identify suitable a channel and bandwidth for transmission and negotiating basic capabilities to select appropriate transmission parameters (see, FIGs. 5 and 6). The links need to be validated the authenticity of the backhaul points by employing security mechanism by authorizing and exchanging key. The CAP also configures operational parameters within neighboring Cloud Arbitrators and obtains and distributes IP address to all related network elements. If there is a path disruption, the CAP will request a new path from M-CA (see, FIGs.. 5 and 6).

The Media Access Control (MAC) management and control plane (214, 314, 406) is Software or a function of managing the network component, such as, M-CA, CS-CA and BP. Each of such components will have the management and control plane coexisted. In the present invention, the MAC plays a fundamental role in the network architecture to keep the management and control plane manageable and healthy. Management and control has a number of management messages defined in the purpose of administering different modules in those components. The messages only carry control information and are transmitted on management connections (including predefined broadcast and multicast connections).

The PhysicalA irtual Execution Environment in the architecture design is a functional entity that operates as an Operating System that works on top of necessary hardware components and performs the processes in relation to different states/operation phases of the network, such as, Initial Network Bootstrap, Operation (including reconfiguration) and Termination of the system. The functions of the Execution Environment are physically present in the network elements, such as, M-CA (200), CS-CA (300) and BP (400) in a distribution manner or are virtually located in the designed network architecture, cloud (internet), or any place that is reached by the designed network architecture.

In the Network Bootstrap of the present invention, the main purpose of the system self- configuration is to enter into regular operational phases with the fewest possible interventions by the operator. This includes the initial system bootstrap of each node after powering up, reaching a communication state that allows finding, communicating and arranging with neighbors, basing on acquired information from the environment.

In the Operation phase, the PhysicalA irtual Execution Environment plays a role as a placeholder for normal operational and execution activities of the network after the initial Bootstrap. In this phase, communication in all network nodes/components is established, and a communication channel from all nodes to the central management system exists. However, the established infrastructure may still be suboptimal in term of performance and efficiency, costs etc. This is where network reconfiguration, reorganization and optimization of the present invention come into play, basing on acquired environment information from sensors within the network. The nodes of the Physical/Virtual Execution Environment cooperate with other functional entities that compute and optimize parameter sets, and then are incorporated into their respective configuration. In another aspect of the present invention, the operation of network elements may be terminated because of the health and security of the entire network system. This process is known as the Termination phase. Network restructuring, redeployment and any other reason that requires causes a temporary interruption may trigger a Termination phase to stop the disruptive operation. Still another feature of the present invention allows specific network elements to enter sleep mode and restore their operation after a predetermined time duration or manual power up after termination. The operator has the option of using the restore and revival mode in lieu of the Termination phase.

The present invention may be embodied in other specific forms without departing from its essential characteristics. The described embodiments are to be considered in all respects only as illustrative and not restrictive. The scope of the invention is, therefore indicated by the appended claims rather than by the foregoing description. All changes, which come within the meaning and range of equivalency of the claims, are to be embraced within their scope.