Advances in cellular phone and related network technology (e.g., microprocessor speed, memory capacity, data transfer bandwidth, software functionality, and the like) have generally contributed to increased cellular application in various settings. For example, today's cellular phones can perform many functions previously reserved for personal computers or other devices, such as web browsing, picture/video shooting, picture/video sharing, instant messaging, file sharing, and the like. As cellular phone capabilities increase, which can also increase demand for the capabilities, networks and protocols are developed to effectively support the capabilities. For example, while global system for mobile communications (GSM) was sufficient to handle functionality of cellular phones a few years ago, other technologies, such as universal mobile telecommunications system (UMTS), which is based from the third generation (3G) standard, have been developed to accommodate larger transfer rates between device and network.
More recently, fourth generation (4G) technologies have been developed, such as third generation partnership project (3GPP) long term evolution (LTE), worldwide interoperability for microwave access (WiMAX), and the like. These technologies provide even further increases in data throughput between mobile device and network, which allows for a vast array of supported device functionalities. In one example, the increased throughput is facilitated by allowing multiple-input/multiple-output (MIMO) communication between device and network such that a device can communicate with a network node, such as a base station, using multiple antennas to simultaneously transmit and receive signals. This requires the device and network node to have multiple antennas to support MIMO communication. Many existing base stations, however, do not have enough antennas to support the amount of MIMO bandwidth required for 4G technologies. In addition, base stations that do have enough antennas typically partition antennas to a number of service providers decreasing the number of usable antennas for a given provider. Antennas could be replaced on the base stations to support MIMO for the 4G technologies, but this can be expensive and can disturb currently supported 2G/3G technologies since the base station can be limited in physical space for installing additional antennas.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds