Portable base station architecture for an AD-HOC ATM lan

摘要

The present invention is a portable base station (PBS) switching device for use in a wireless ATM local area network (LAN). The PBS includes a plurality of high speed interfaces which operate, for example, in the Gb/s range and which are adapted to couple to other PBS s in the network. The high speed interfaces are coupled to an ATM switching fabric adapted to selectively route incoming ATM cells to an appropriate output port in said PBS without any VPI (virtual path identifier) translation at transit PBSs. The PBS includes wireless interface and processor unit for coupling to mobile users which may include laptop and notebook computers. Memory is included within the processor unit for selectively storing ATM cells according to their VPI. In one preferred embodiment of the PBS a passive optical unit is used to transmit and receive data between PBSs. The passive optical unit may include a laser transmitter and optical receiver.