Optical fiber-based distributed antenna systems, components, and related methods for calibration thereof

摘要

Optical fiber-based wireless systems and related components and methods are disclosed. The systems support radio frequency (RF) communications with clients over optical fiber, including Radio-over-Fiber (RoF) communications. The systems may be provided as part of an indoor distributed antenna system (IDAS) to provide wireless communication services to clients inside a building or other facility. The communications can be distributed between a head end unit (HEU) that receives carrier signals from one or more service or carrier providers and converts the signals to RoF signals for distribution over optical fibers to end points, which may be remote antenna units (RAUs). In one embodiment, calibration of communication downlinks and communication uplinks is performed to compensate for signal strength losses in the system.

主权项

1. A wireless communication system, comprising:
a downlink base transceiver station (BTS) interface configured to receive downlink electrical radio frequency (RF) signals from at least one BTS; at least one optical interface module (OIM) configured to:
receive and convert the downlink electrical RF signals from the downlink BTS interface into downlink Radio-over-Fiber (RoF) signals on at least one communication downlink; andreceive and convert uplink RoF signals from at least one remote antenna unit (RAU) into uplink electrical RF signals on at least one communication uplink; an uplink BTS interface configured to receive and communicate the uplink electrical RF signals from the at least one communication uplink to the at least one BTS; and a controller configured to:
inject at least one calibration signal over the at least one communication downlink;calibrate at least one downlink gain in the at least one communication downlink based on a loss incurred in the at least one calibration signal in the at least one communication downlink;cause the at least one calibration signal to be switched from the at least one communication downlink to the at least one communication uplink; andcalibrate at least one uplink gain in the at least one communication uplink based on a loss incurred in the at least one calibration signal in the at least one communication uplink.