Wireless network for wideband indoor communications

摘要

The present invention relates to a wideband communication network using wireless radio transmissions either on a stand-alone basis or to supplement a hard-wired network. The exemplary network comprises (a) a plurality of transceivers (10-19) associated with separate users of the network; (b) optionally at least one concentrator (20, 21) associated with certain separate subgroups of wireless (14-19) and possibly hard-wired (10-13) transceivers for providing duplex operation; and (c) a central node (30), (i) capable of providing both duplex communications directly via a radio channel using radio links with certain subgroups of the transceivers and via a hard-wired connection with each optional concentrator, and (ii) for polling the needs of all transceivers and directing all packets of information from active transceivers through the central node and to the destined transceivers during each frame period. The network also preferably includes diversity and resource sharing techniques to provide added protection against channel impairments on an as-needed basis.