Software configurable distributed antenna system and method for bandwidth compression and transport of signals in noncontiguous frequency blocks

Abstract

A method for transporting communications signals includes receiving an analog IF signal at a first unit. The analog IF signal includes a first carrier having a first frequency and a first bandwidth and a second carrier having a second frequency different from the first frequency and a second bandwidth. The analog IF signal is converted to a digitally sampled IF signal having the first carrier located in a first Nyquist zone, the second carrier located in a second Nyquist zone, an image of the first carrier located in a third Nyquist zone, and an image of the second carrier located in the third Nyquist zone. The image of the first carrier and the image of the second carrier is transmitted from the first unit to a second unit, where the image of the first carrier and the image of the second carrier is then converted to the analog IF signal.

Claims

1. A method for bandwidth compression of a signal, the method comprising: receiving an analog radio frequency (RF) signal at a first unit, wherein the RF analog signal includes a first carrier having a first frequency and a first bandwidth and a second carrier having a second frequency different from the first frequency and a second bandwidth; translating the analog RF signal into an analog intermediate frequency (IF) signal; providing a sampling signal having a sampling frequency; converting the analog IF signal into a digitally sampled IF signal using the sampling signal, wherein the digitally sampled IF signal includes: the first carrier in a second Nyquist zone, the second carrier in a third Nyquist zone, an image of the first carrier in a first Nyquist zone, and an image of the second carrier in the first Nyquist zone; and transmitting the image of the first carrier and the image of the second carrier from the first unit to a second unit.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first unit comprises a digital remote unit (DRU) and the second unit comprises a digital access unit (DAU).

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first unit comprises a digital access unit (DAU) and the second unit comprises a digital remote unit (DRU).

4. The method of claim 1, wherein a frequency of a center of the first Nyquist zone is lower than a frequency of a center of the second Nyquist zone, and wherein the frequency of the center of the second Nyquist zone is lower than a frequency of a center of the third Nyquist zone.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising filtering the digitally sampled IF signal.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein filtering the digitally sampled IF signal comprises filtering out the second Nyquist zone and the third Nyquist zone.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein transmitting the image of the first carrier and the image of the second carrier from the first unit to the second unit is performed using an Ethernet cable, an optical cable, a microwave link, a coaxial connection, or a wireless link.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein transmitting the image of the first carrier and the image of the second carrier from the first unit to the second unit is via a parallel connector independent of a serializer/deserializer (SERDES).

9. A system for bandwidth compression of a signal, the system comprising: a first unit including: an input port operable to receive an analog radio frequency (RF) signal, wherein the RF analog signal includes a first carrier having a first frequency and a first bandwidth and a second carrier having a second frequency different from the first frequency and a second bandwidth; an intermediate frequency (IF) processing function operable to translate the analog RF signal into an analog IF signal; an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) coupled to the IF processing function and operable to convert the analog IF signal into a digitally sampled IF signal wherein: the first carrier in a second Nyquist zone, the second carrier in a third Nyquist zone, an image of the first carrier in a first Nyquist zone, and an image of the second carrier in the first Nyquist zone; and a transmission link operable to transmit the image of the first carrier and the image of the second carrier from the first unit to a second unit.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the first unit comprises a digital remote unit (DRU) and the second unit comprises a digital access unit (DAU).

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the first unit comprises a digital access unit (DAU) and the second unit comprises a digital remote unit (DRU).

12. The system of claim 9, wherein a frequency of a center of the first Nyquist zone is lower than a frequency of a center of the second Nyquist zone, and wherein the frequency of the center of the second Nyquist zone is lower than a frequency of a center of the third Nyquist zone.

13. The system of claim 9, wherein the first unit further includes a filter coupled to the ADC.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the filter is operable to filter out the second Nyquist zone and the third Nyquist zone.

15. The system of claim 9, wherein the transmission link comprises an Ethernet cable, an optical cable, a microwave link, a coaxial connection, or a wireless link.

16. The system of claim 9, wherein the first unit further includes a serializer/deserializer (SERDES) coupled to the transmission link.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

(1) Further objects and advantages of the invention can be more fully understood from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

(2) FIG. 1 shows an example of a DAS architecture, highlighting the interfaces between a Base Station (BTS), a Digital Access Unit (DAU) and multiple Digital Remote Units (DRUs).

(3) FIG. 2 illustrates the transport of a wireless uplink signal from the DRU to the base station. The wireless uplink signal is represented as two carriers in noncontiguous frequency blocks.

(4) FIG. 3 shows an embodiment illustrating the uplink signal bandwidth compression technique of the present invention, which is employed within the DRU.

(5) FIG. 4 shows an embodiment illustrating the reconstruction of the uplink signal using the bandwidth decompression technique of the present invention, which is employed within the DAU.

(6) FIG. 5 shows an embodiment illustrating the downlink signal bandwidth compression technique of the present invention, which is employed within the DAU.

(7) FIG. 6 shows an embodiment illustrating the reconstruction of the downlink signal using the bandwidth decompression technique of the present invention, which is employed within the DRU.

(8) FIG. 7 is a simplified schematic diagram illustrating a system including bandwidth compression techniques provided by an embodiment of the present invention for an uplink signal comprising two wireless carriers with wide frequency spacing.

(9) FIG. 8 is a simplified flowchart illustrating a method of transmitting communications signals according to an embodiment of the present invention.

(10) FIG. 9 is a simplified schematic diagram illustrating a system including bandwidth compression techniques provided by an alternative embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

(11) According to embodiments of the present invention, a novel Distributed Antenna System (DAS) that exploits the Software Configurable Radio subsystem (referred to hereinafter as software defined radios or a software-defined digital platform) is provided. Embodiments enable DAUs, RRUs, and DRUs to communicate with each other.

(12) Moreover, the system is flexible with regard to being able to support various radio technologies, such as CDMA, CDMA 1×EV-DO, TD-SCDMA, WCDMA and LTE. However, embodiments may not be limited to these, as other applicable radio technologies may be apparent to those with ordinary skill in the art.

(13) FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of an exemplary Distributed Antenna System (DAS). Each DRU may receive wireless uplink signals 101, 104, or 106 at its antenna. The DRUs may each be connected to a DAU 103 via an optical fiber 102, 105 or 107, and the DAU 103 may be connected to a BTS 108 via one or more RF cables 109. The DRU may transport the uplink signals to the DAU via the optical fibers. The DAU 103 may receive wireless downlink signals from the BTS 108. The DAU 103 may transport downlink signals, not shown, to each of the DRUs via the optical fibers 102, 105, or 107. The DAU 103 and the DRUs may each contain a software-defined digital platform.

(14) Still referring to FIG. 1, DRU 1 receives wireless uplink signals 101, represents the signals 101 in a digital format and transports them via optical fiber 102 to DAU 103. Similarly, DRU 2 receives wireless uplink signals 104, represents the signals 104 in a digital format and transports them via optical fiber 105 to DAU 103. Similarly, DRU N receives wireless uplink signals 106, represents the signals in a digital format and transports them via optical fiber 107 to DAU 103. DAU 103 processes all the incoming optical signals containing the respective uplink signals, according to the settings entered within the software-defined digital platform within the DAU 103. DAU 103 then converts the appropriate uplink signals to RF and routes the appropriate RF uplink signals to BTS 108 via RF Cable 109.

(15) An alternative embodiment may be described as follows. Instead of feeding one DRU with one optical fiber, the DRU may in turn feed a second DRU in a daisy-chain configuration, meaning the DRUs may be linked in a sequence with each other, via optical fiber or similar communication means. An additional embodiment is one where multiple optical fibers may be used to interconnect the DAU with a single DRU, in order to deliver additional capacity to the DRU.

(16) A further alternative embodiment may be described as follows. Instead of having only one DAU in the system, two or more DAUs may be daisy-chained or networked in order to provide a capability for digital combining of signals from multiple base stations which in turn feed the various DRUs. For this embodiment, the base stations may either be on different frequencies in different bands, on different frequencies within the same band, or on the same frequencies in the same band. The latter embodiment relates to an application for capacity enhancement at a specific DRU where it is advisable to avoid sharing of radio resources among multiple DRUs. In that case, multiple co-channel base stations would typically be connected to the DAUs.

(17) An alternative embodiment may be described as follows. Instead of using an optical fiber link to transport signals from the DAU to DRU 1 as in FIG. 1, a point-to-point microwave link may be used for transporting the signals in both directions. Also, instead of using an optical fiber link to transport signals from the DAU to DRU 1, a wire cable such as unshielded twisted pair may be used for transporting the signals in both directions.

(18) A further alternative embodiment may be described as follows. Instead of using an RF cable to connect signals between the BTS and DAU, an RF repeater can be used to transport RF signals over-the-air between a nearby base station site and the DAU.

(19) Another alternative embodiment may be described as follows. Instead of using a DAU 103 to interact between DRUs and a BTS 108, each DRU may be connected to the base station 108 without a DAU 103. This configuration may be sometimes called a remote radio head, and the DRUs may be called RRUs in this case. Persons skilled in the art would appreciate other embodiments of the present invention based on similar DAS architectures as described herein, either singly or in combination.

(20) FIG. 2 illustrates the transport of a wireless uplink signal from the DRU to the base station. The wireless uplink signal is represented as two carriers in noncontiguous frequency blocks. Referring to FIG. 2, DRU 1 receives wireless uplink signals 201, represents the signals in a digital format and transports them via optical fiber 202 to DAU 203. DAU 203 then converts the appropriate uplink signals to RF and routes the appropriate RF uplink signals to BTS 204.

(21) An example of two carriers in noncontiguous frequency blocks is as follows, with reference to FIG. 2. Carrier 1 may be a 5 MHz wide WCDMA carrier, Carrier 2 may be a 5 MHz wide CDMA carrier and there may be a 15 MHz wide gap between the 2 carriers, the total bandwidth occupied by the two carriers and including the gap is 25 MHz. With regard to FIG. 2, the optical fiber transport function allocates at least 25 MHz to the uplink signal. It would be highly desirable to employ a bandwidth compression technique to reduce the allocated bandwidth for the optical fiber transport function.

(22) FIG. 3 shows an embodiment illustrating the uplink signal bandwidth compression technique of the present invention, which is employed within the DRU. Referring to FIG. 3, the uplink input signal 301 comprising two wireless carriers is frequency translated by RF Processing Function 302 and IF Processing Function 303 to an Intermediate Frequency (IF). The IF signal 304 is then sampled by ADC 305 at a rate which causes the images of the two uplink carriers to be positioned within separate Nyquist zones. In general a Nyquist zone as used herein may refer to the standard definition of Nyquist zone as used and understood according to those with ordinary skill in the art, e.g. each zone represents a sampling of the signal in question where the sampling rate is no slower than 2B (the Nyquist rate), where B is the highest frequency of the signal in question. As is seen in FIG. 3, the images fold into the same Nyquist zone so as to create a compact compressed bandwidth.

(23) The Digital signal processing function 306 helps prepare the signals for transport over the optical fiber. The Serializer/Deserializer (SERDES) 307 translates the parallel bit streams into serial bit streams, and the resulting serial bit stream corresponding to signal 309 is fed to the Optical Transport function 308.

(24) It is readily understood that although FIG. 3 describes the uplink signal as comprising two carriers, various embodiments of the present invention may include two or more noncontiguous bandwidths.

(25) FIG. 4 shows an embodiment illustrating the reconstruction of the uplink signal using the bandwidth decompression technique of the present invention, which is employed within the DAU. The compressed bandwidth is reconstructed back to its original form and the resulting signal is fed into the base station. Referring to FIG. 4, the serial bit stream 402 is fed from the Optical Transport function 401 into the Serializer/Deserializer (SERDES) 403 which translates the serial bit stream into parallel bit streams. The parallel bit streams are fed into the Digital Signal Processing function 404 which prepares the signals to be processed by DAC 405, which samples the resulting signal at a rate such that the signals are reconstructed and returned to their appropriate positions in the IF domain (Signal 409) as seen in FIG. 4. The IF Processing function 406 and the RF Processing function 407 translate the IF signal back to the RF domain, and the resulting signal 410 is fed to the BTS 408.

(26) FIG. 5 shows an embodiment illustrating the downlink signal bandwidth compression technique of the present invention, which is employed within the DAU. The DAU contains the functions which process the downlink signal in preparation for transport over the optical fiber to one or more DRUs. Referring to FIG. 5, the downlink input signal 501 comprising two wireless carriers is frequency translated by RF Processing Function 502 and IF Processing Function 503 to an Intermediate Frequency (IF). The IF signal 504 is then sampled by ADC 505 at a rate which causes the images of the two downlink carriers to be positioned within separate Nyquist zones. As is seen in FIG. 5, the images fold into the same Nyquist zone so as to create a compact compressed bandwidth. The Digital signal processing function 506 helps prepare the signals for transport over the optical fiber. The Serializer/Deserializer (SERDES) 507 translates the parallel bit streams into serial bit streams, and the resulting serial bit stream corresponding to Signal 509 is fed to the Optical Transport function 508.

(27) It is readily understood that although FIG. 5 describes the downlink signal as comprising two carriers, the embodiment would apply as well to two or more noncontiguous bandwidths.

(28) It is readily understood that although FIG. 5 may be discussed in references to the use of a single RF-to-IF frequency translator for both of the two downlink carriers, embodiments would apply as well in the event that multiple RF-to-IF frequency translators were used along with an IF summing function whose output feeds the ADC.

(29) FIG. 6 shows an embodiment illustrating the reconstruction of the downlink signal using the bandwidth decompression. Referring to FIG. 6, the serial bit stream 602 is fed from the Optical Transport function 601 into the Serializer/Deserializer (SERDES) 603 which translates the serial bit stream into parallel bit streams. The parallel bit streams are fed into the Digital Signal Processing function 604 which prepares the signals to be processed by DAC 605, which samples the resulting signal at a rate such that the signals are reconstructed and returned to their appropriate positions in the IF domain (Signal 608) as seen in FIG. 6. The IF Processing function 606 and the RF Processing function 607 translate the IF signal back to the RF domain, and the resulting RF signal 609 is transmitted from the DRU.

(30) FIG. 7 illustrates an embodiment wherein the bandwidth compression technique of the present invention may be employed for an uplink signal comprising two wireless carriers with wide frequency spacing BW.sub.i 707. For illustration, the uplink signal 707 includes a Lower Band and an Upper Band. The uplink wireless signal is received at the DRU and then frequency translated down to a selected Intermediate Frequency (IF) which is referred to as F.sub.if. The IF signal 707 comprises two carriers in noncontiguous frequency blocks inside the total signal bandwidth. In some cases, without employing embodiments of the invention, the signal will have to be sampled at twice the bandwidth BW.sub.i, even though no signal is being transported between the lower and upper bands. Thus, direct processing and transport of this signal without any bandwidth compression through embodiments of the present invention would result in an inefficient utilization of the optical fiber transport data rate. After signal 707 is IF frequency translated, IF signal 707 is then fed into ADC 706.

(31) The inset 708 in FIG. 7, subtitled “DRU Signal Processing (After ADC),” illustrates an exemplary implementation for how embodiments of the present invention compress the received signal having bandwidth, BW.sub.i 707, into a compressed signal having compressed bandwidth BW.sub.c 709. By selecting the ADC sampling rate F.sub.S with respect to the selected IF frequency F.sub.if such that the Lower and Upper bands appear in different Nyquist zones, images of the sampled carriers will be folded within the same Nyquist zones. The 1st Nyquist zone 714 is from DC to ½ the sampling rate (F.sub.S/2). The 2nd Nyquist zone 713 is from ½ the sampling rate (F.sub.S/2) to the sampling rate (F.sub.S). The 3rd Nyquist zone 712 is from the sampling rate (F.sub.S) to 3/2 the sampling rate (3F.sub.S/2). Higher Nyquist zones continue in this same fashion. Exemplary embodiments of the invention involve selecting an appropriate sampling rate F.sub.S such that the Lower band (LB) and Upper band (UB) of BW.sub.i 707 fall into two separate Nyquist zones. Once F.sub.S is selected to satisfy this condition, the translation of the original received signal into an intermediate frequency F.sub.if typically is chosen next, where F.sub.if is the frequency centered at the bandwidth BW.sub.i 707, appropriately such that F.sub.if<F.sub.S, and the choice of F.sub.if still allows the Upper and Lower bands to fall within separate Nyquist zones based on F.sub.S.

(32) In the example shown in FIG. 7, the Lower band (LB) is shown to fall within the 2.sup.nd Nyquist zone 713, which is designated as the bandwidth between half the sampling rate F.sub.S to the sampling rate F.sub.S. Similarly, the Upper band (UB) is shown to fall within the 3.sup.rd Nyquist zone 712, which is designated as the bandwidth between the sampling rate F.sub.S and 3/2 of the sampling rate F.sub.S. The Upper band and Lower band are placed in separate Nyquist zones, such that F.sub.if<F.sub.S. In other embodiments, the Upper and Lower bands may be reversed; that is, the Upper band may fall within the 2.sup.nd Nyquist zone while the Lower band falls within the 3.sup.rd Nyquist zone. In other embodiments, the Upper and Lower bands may be in a different ordered sequence of Nyquist zones, e.g. Upper and Lower bands fall within the 4.sup.th and 5.sup.th Nyquist zones, or 1.sup.st and 2.sup.nd Nyquist zones, etc. As an example, FIG. 9 provides additional description of alternative embodiments.

(33) The images of the carriers before sampling each appear in different Nyquist zones and through the sampling process of the ADC 706 the images are then folded into the same Nyquist zone in order to result in a compact spectrum for the combined carriers. This folding of carriers into the same Nyquist zone is an inherent bi-product of selecting F.sub.S and F.sub.if such that the Upper and Lower bands fall within separate Nyquist zones. The images of each of the Upper and Lower bands are inherently reflected into the other multiple Nyquist zones (e.g. UB′ and LB′, respectively), as shown in the inset 708 of FIG. 7, resulting in both Upper and Lower bands appearing in the same Nyquist zone, e.g. the 1.sup.st Nyquist zone 714 and the 4.sup.th Nyquist zone 711, but at compressed bandwidths BW.sub.c.

(34) Thus, in certain embodiments of the invention, the choice of sampling rate F.sub.S with respect to IF frequency F.sub.if is made so that the carriers are closely spaced and yet can easily be reconstructed so that they are repositioned at the original frequency spacing without a high complexity of digital signal processing. In some embodiments, F.sub.S and F.sub.if are selected with an added condition that the resulting compressed signal does not place both Upper and Lower bands so close together that it becomes difficult to filter the two signals and also reconstruct the original signal. In some embodiments, the particular choice of sampling rate F.sub.S and IF frequency F.sub.if may depend on the bandwidth of the signals to be compressed and should be selected based on employing practical filtering to reconstruct the signals with their original frequency spacing. The selection of the most appropriate Nyquist zone to use in processing the carriers' images is driven by the fact that the signal-to-noise ratio is degraded at the higher Nyquist zones. Namely, exemplary embodiments select the 1.sup.st Nyquist zone 714 to process the compressed signal having bandwidth BW.sub.c, because the 1.sup.st Nyquist zone 714 has a better signal-to-noise ratio than the higher Nyquist zones.

(35) The resulting signal 708 comprising the compressed bandwidth carriers is then further translated in the Digital Down Converter (DDC) and decimator 705 so that the resultant signal 709 is at baseband and is formatted as parallel bit streams. This means that typically, the signals falling within the higher Nyquist zones, e.g. 2.sup.nd Nyquist zone 713, 3.sup.rd Nyquist zone 712, 4.sup.th Nyquist zone 711, etc., are filtered out, such that only the compressed signal 708 remains. Notice that while the original signal placed in the 2.sup.nd and 3.sup.rd Nyquist zones are filtered out, no information is lost with respect to the original signal, since both Upper and Lower bands are inherently replicated into the 1.sup.st Nyquist zone 714.

(36) Alternative embodiments of the present invention may switch the order of whether F.sub.S or F.sub.if is chosen first, relative to the other parameter and subject to the above mentioned constraints. In other embodiments, F.sub.S or F.sub.if may be fixed, while the other parameter is chosen relative to the fixed parameter and subject to the above mentioned constraints.

(37) As will be discussed below, the translation to baseband in the DRU is not necessarily limited to employing a Digital Down Converter (DDC) and decimator. Other embodiments may involve different filtering means that would be readily apparent to those with skill in the art. The baseband signal has a compressed bandwidth BW.sub.c 709, which means that a lower data rate can be employed to preserve all the information contained in the two carriers, which is a key advantage of embodiments of the present invention. The baseband signal 709 is then delivered to the SERDES 704 for transport over the optical fiber 703.

(38) The optical data at the end of the optical link 703 is then delivered to the SERDES 702 in the DAU. At the DAU the signal output from the SERDES is then Digitally Up Converted (DUC), Filtered and then Digitally Downconverted (DDC), in 701, so as to reconstruct the original signal at digital IF. The reconstruction at the DAU from the baseband signal to an IF signal is not limited to DUC-Filter-DDC processes. The carriers received from SERDES 702 are individually filtered and translated to the original frequency spacing as in 707.

(39) The reconstructed digital IF signal is then fed into the Digital to Analog Converter (DAC) 700 and the DAC output will be an analog IF signal 710 with the same carrier spacing as the DRU input IF signal 707.

(40) As mentioned previously with regard to FIG. 7, the translation to baseband in the DRU is not necessarily limited to employing a Digital Down Converter (DDC) and decimator. An alternative embodiment would employ independently processing the individual carriers and combining them at baseband.

(41) An alternative method for processing the uplink signal in the DRU to compress the bandwidth would be as follows. A quadrature modulator can be utilized for translating the IF signal 707 directly to baseband using in-phase and quadrature (I and Q) representations of the uplink signals, which are then fed into dual ADCs. The respective outputs of the ADCs are then digitally processed so as to compress the overall bandwidth of the combined signals. Frequency translation of the individual carriers followed by filtering can be used to result in a bandwidth-compressed signal as in 709.

(42) An alternative embodiment would be to choose a different IF frequency at the DRU then the one at the DAU. If the sampling rate is common between the DAU and DRU, then the IF frequency at the DRU can be chosen independently form the IF frequency at the DAU. The signal processing at the DRU and DAU will ensure that the signals are translated correctly between units.

(43) An alternative embodiment would be to choose a different Sampling frequency at the DRU then the one at the DAU. If the IF frequency is common between the DAU and DRU, then the Sampling frequency at the DRU can be chosen independently form the Sampling frequency at the DAU. The signal processing at the DRU and DAU will insure that the signals are translated correctly between units.

(44) FIG. 7 depicts the transportation of the Uplink signal from the DRU to the DAU. An analogous process is used to transport the downlink signal from the DAU to the DRU. A difference is that signal 707 will appear at the input to the DAU and signal 710 will appear at the output from the DRU.

(45) Advantages of embodiments of the present invention may include more efficient implementation of wireless communications systems. For example, for a given cell phone of a user, there may be a number of bands at which the cell phone operates. The cell phone may operate at varying megahertz frequencies, e.g. 1900 MHz, 850 MHz and 700 MHz. A cell phone provider, e.g. Verizon® or AT&T®′ may need to be able to handle all these bands in order to cover all modes of communication of the cell phone. However, for example, in the 700 MHz band Verizon® and AT&T® own spectrum, the spectrums are actually quite a ways apart, e.g. about 150 MHz between each spectrum of Verizon® and AT&T®. With embodiments of the present invention, implementations use only four bands, whereas conventional products would utilize five bands. Thus, whereas a conventional product may have to utilize a separate band for a first operator and a separate band for a second operator, the bandwidth compression techniques described herein can combine the traffic from the multiple operators into a single band.

(46) FIG. 8 is a simplified flowchart illustrating a method of transporting communications signals according to an embodiment of the present invention. The exemplary method starts at block 810, wherein a first unit, e.g. a DRU, may receive signals with noncontinguous frequency blocks, e.g. two carriers, a lower band and an upper band, spanning total bandwidth BW.sub.i between them. The signals may be analog or digital signals. The signals may be then translated into intermediate frequency (IF) signals, as shown in block 812. Translating the original signals into IF signals enables embodiments of the present invention to more easily manipulate the signals using signal processing devices known in the art.

(47) The method continues to block 814, where signal compression techniques of the present invention may compress the bandwidth BW.sub.i between the lower band and upper bands into a compressed bandwidth BW.sub.c. Exemplary compression techniques of the present invention are described in FIG. 7, above. Block 814 may include other signal processing techniques, for example the use of an ADC module if the original signals were analog signals.

(48) In some embodiments, in between blocks 814 and 816, the signals processed through the compression technique may also be filtered, such that only the compressed signals remain. This may be done through various means, such as a DDC and a decimator, or other filtering means that would be apparent to those with skill in the art. The compressed signals may then be converted into their in-phase (I) and quadrature-phase (Q) components, and may also be down-converted. The I and Q components of the compressed signals may then be processed through a Serializer/Deserializer (SERDES), in anticipation of being transmitted through a transmission link.

(49) At block 816, the compressed signals may then be transmitted across a transmission link to a receiver of a second unit. The transmission link may be an optical link transmission, Ethernet cable, Microwave Link, coaxial connection, Wireless link, or other transmission means for carrying a signal to a second unit. The second unit may be a DAU, or in other embodiments may be the base station itself.

(50) At block 818, the second unit, e.g. DAU, receives the compressed signals via the transmission link. If the signals were converted into their I and Q components, and/or were processed through a SERDES, then the compressed signals would need to be inverse-processed using another SERDES, digital down-converter (DDC), digital up-converter (DUC), various filters or other means known in the art.

(51) Finally, at block 820, reconstruction techniques are employed that reverse the bandwidth compression of the IF signals, wherein none of the information of the original signals is lost. The signals may pass through a DAC if the original signals were analog signals, and be utilized by the second unit or passed on to another unit, e.g. a base station, for information processing or the like. It is apparent by this method that embodiments of the present invention may be viewed as “symmetric,” in that the processing conducted on either end of the methods described a reversed with no loss of information. Therefore, it is apparent that the techniques described herein can be reversed, in that the same bandwidth compression and decompression techniques can be employed starting from the second unit, e.g. the DAU or base station, and ending at the first unit, e.g. the DRU. These techniques may be consistent with those described in any and all of FIGS. 1 through 7.

(52) It should be appreciated that the specific steps illustrated in FIG. 8 provide a particular method of transporting communications signals according to an embodiment of the present invention. Other sequences of steps may also be performed according to alternative embodiments. For example, alternative embodiments of the present invention may perform the steps outlined above in a different order. Moreover, the individual steps illustrated in FIG. 8 may include multiple sub-steps that may be performed in various sequences as appropriate to the individual step. Furthermore, additional steps may be added or removed depending on the particular applications. One of ordinary skill in the art would recognize many variations, modifications, and alternatives.

(53) FIG. 9 illustrates an alternative embodiment wherein the bandwidth compression technique of the present invention may be employed for an uplink signal comprising two wireless carriers with wide frequency spacing BW.sub.i 907. The uplink signal 907 includes a Lower Band and a Upper Band. The uplink wireless signal is received at the DRU and then frequency translated down to a selected Intermediate Frequency (IF) which is referred to as F.sub.if. The IF signal 907 comprises two carriers in noncontiguous frequency blocks inside the total signal bandwidth. Direct processing and transport of this signal without any bandwidth compression would result in an inefficient utilization of the optical fiber transport data rate. IF signal 907 is fed into ADC 906. For this embodiment the first carrier is positioned inside the 1.sup.st Nyquist zone and the second carrier is positioned inside the 2.sup.nd Nyquist zone. The image of the second carrier (i.e., upper band) is positioned in the 1.sup.st Nyquist zone within the bandwidth BW.sub.c of the first carrier (i.e., the lower band). Thus, this alternative embodiment differs from the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 7, in which the 1.sup.st Nyquist zone included images of both carriers.

(54) Although the present invention has been described with reference to the preferred embodiments, it will be understood that the invention is not limited to the details described thereof. Various substitutions and modifications have been suggested in the foregoing description, and others will occur to those of ordinary skill in the art. Therefore, all such substitutions and modifications are intended to be embraced within the scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims.