Broadcast/Broadband Convergence Network

Abstract

A broadcast/broadband convergence system that delivers content from content sources to user equipment devices. The system provides: significantly enhanced mobile capability to the broadcast industry; an additional revenue source for the broadcast industry by dynamically selling available spectral resources for use by wireless broadband networks and/or broadcast content off-loaded from wireless broadband networks; additional spectrum for the broadband industry through the dynamic purchase of available spectrum; and an enriched user experience. A spectrum server may facilitate the dynamic allocation of radio spectrum made available by the broadcast networks. The broadcast networks may broadcast with enhanced waveform parameters to support mobile devices as well as fixed devices.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A spectrum server for allocating available broadcast spectrum resources under carrier aggregation, the spectrum server comprising:
 one or more processors, and   memory storing program instructions, wherein the program instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to:
 (a) receive information indicating broadcast spectrum made available by one or more broadcast networks; 
 (b) assign at least a portion of the available broadcast spectrum to a wireless broadband network in response to a request from the wireless broadband network, wherein said assigned at least a portion is defined by one or more intervals of resource block numbers according to a partition of the available broadcast spectrum into resource blocks of fixed width; and 
 (c) transmit a message to the wireless broadband network, wherein the message identifies the one or more intervals of resource block numbers. 
   
     
     
         2 . The spectrum server of  claim 1 , wherein the program instructions are configured so that one or more of the following conditions is true:
 wherein the resource blocks of said partition are distributed symmetrically with respect to a center of the available broadcast spectrum;   wherein, if the one or more resource blocks defining said at least a portion are odd in number, said assigning includes inserting a half-subcarrier shift of those one or more resource blocks, wherein said insertion avoids signal power being allocated to a DC subcarrier when the wireless broadband network generates a downlink signal based on said at least a portion;   wherein the resource blocks of said partition exclude edge portions of the available broadcast spectrum, to avoid interference with transmissions on other bands of radio spectrum.   
     
     
         3 . A base station for operation as part of a wireless broadband network, enabling dynamic aggregation of spectrum resources, the base station comprising:
 circuitry configured to wirelessly transmit a downlink signal to one or more devices using aggregated spectrum resources including a portion of broadband spectrum and a portion of broadcast spectrum, wherein the portion of broadcast spectrum has been made available by one or more broadcast networks and dynamically assigned to the wireless broadband network by a spectrum server, wherein the portion of broadcast spectrum is specified by the spectrum server as one or more intervals of resource block numbers according to a partition of a contiguous band of the broadcast spectrum into resource blocks of fixed width.   
     
     
         4 . The base station of  claim 3 , wherein, if one or more the resource blocks defining said portion of broadcast spectrum are odd in number, said circuitry is configured to insert a half-subcarrier shift of those one or more resource blocks, wherein said insertion avoids signal power being allocated to a DC subcarrier. 
     
     
         5 . The base station of  claim 3 , wherein the resource blocks of said partition of the contiguous band exclude edge portions of the contiguous band, to avoid interference with transmissions on other bands of radio spectrum. 
     
     
         6 . The base station of  claim 3 , wherein the circuitry includes one or more RF transceivers, one or more baseband processors, and one or more control processors. 
     
     
         7 . A device enabling dynamic aggregation of spectrum resources, the device comprising:
 circuitry configured to wirelessly communicate with one or more base stations associated with a wireless broadband network, wherein said communication includes receiving a downlink signal transmitted by a first of the one or more base stations, where the downlink signal uses aggregated spectrum resources including a portion of broadband spectrum and a portion of broadcast spectrum, wherein the portion of broadcast spectrum has been made available by one or more broadcast networks and dynamically assigned to the wireless broadband network by a spectrum server, wherein the portion of broadcast spectrum is specified by the spectrum server as one or more intervals of resource block numbers according to a partition of a contiguous band of the broadcast spectrum into resource blocks of fixed width.   
     
     
         8 . The device of  claim 7 , wherein the circuitry includes one or more RF transceivers, one or more baseband processors, and one or more control processors. 
     
     
         9 . A base station for use as part of a wireless network, the base station comprising:
 one or more primary-band (PB) radios, wherein each of the PB radios is configured to transmit at least over a respective one of one or more primary bands;   one or more additional radios, wherein each of the one or more additional radios has a carrier frequency that is dynamically tunable or programmable to any of multiple frequency bands within the radio spectrum;   a controller configured to:
 receive information identifying a first dynamically-allocated spectrum resource; 
 tune or program a first of the one or more additional radios to a first carrier frequency corresponding to the first dynamically-allocated spectrum resource; 
 receive a data stream from an infrastructure network; 
 divide the data stream into a first set of substreams; 
 direct a parallel transmission of the substreams of the first set using respectively the one or more PB radios and the first additional radio. 
   
     
     
         10 . The base station of  claim 9 , wherein at least one of the PB radios has a carrier frequency that is dynamically tunable or programmable to any of the multiple frequency bands. 
     
     
         11 . The base station of  claim 9 , wherein the multiple frequency bands include the one or more primary bands and one or more additional bands. 
     
     
         12 . The base station of  claim 9 , wherein the one or more additional radios comprise a plurality of additional radios, wherein the controller is further configured to:
 tune or program each of the additional radios to a respective carrier frequency corresponding to a respective dynamically-allocated spectrum resource;   divide the data stream into a second set of substreams;   direct the parallel transmission of the substreams of the second set using respectively the one or more PB radios and the additional radios.   
     
     
         13 . The base station of  claim 9 , wherein the controller is further configured to:
 receive information identifying a second dynamically-allocated spectrum resource;   tune or program a second of the additional radios to a second carrier frequency corresponding to the second dynamically-allocated spectrum resource;   divide the data stream into a second set of substreams;   direct the parallel transmission of the substreams of the second set using respectively the one or more PB radios and the first and second additional radios.   
     
     
         14 . The base station of  claim 9 , wherein the information identifying the first dynamically-allocated spectrum resource includes:
 information indicating the first carrier frequency of the first dynamically-allocated spectrum resource, and   information indicating a first period of time over which the first dynamically-allocated spectrum resource has been allocated to the base station.   
     
     
         15 . The base station of  claim 9 , wherein the controller is configured to generate OFDM symbol streams based respectively on the data substreams, where said parallel transmission includes parallel transmission of the OFDM symbols streams using respectively the one or more PB radios and the first additional radio. 
     
     
         16 . A device for operation as part of a wireless broadband network, the device comprising:
 one or more primary-band transceivers, wherein each of the PB transceivers is configured to wirelessly communicate with a base station of the wireless broadband network using a respective one of one or more primary bands within a radio spectrum;   one or more receivers, wherein each of the one or more receivers has a carrier frequency that is dynamically tunable or programmable to any of multiple frequency bands within the radio spectrum;   a controller configured to:
 receive one or more network data streams from a base station of the wireless broadband network using the one or more PB transceivers; 
 tune or program a first of the one or more receivers to a carrier frequency corresponding to a first currently-available spectrum resource of the radio spectrum in response to receiving a first message from the base station, wherein the first message identifies the first currently-available spectrum resource; 
 receive a first additional network data stream from the base station using the first receiver after having tuned or programmed the first receiver; and 
 combine the one or more network data streams and the first additional network data stream to obtain an aggregate data stream. 
   
     
     
         17 . The device of  claim 16 , wherein one or more broadcast transmitters in a geographical neighborhood of the base station are controlled by a broadcast exchange, wherein the broadcast exchange has agreed not to broadcast using the first currently-available spectrum resource in the geographical neighborhood of the base station over a specified period of time. 
     
     
         18 . The device of  claim 16 , wherein one or more broadcast transmitters in a geographical neighborhood of the base station are controlled by an individual broadcaster, wherein the individual broadcaster has agreed not to broadcast using the first currently-available spectrum resource in the geographical neighborhood of the base station over a specified period of time. 
     
     
         19 . The device of  claim 16 , wherein the one or more PB radios and the one or more additional radios each conform to a common hardware design, wherein each of the one or more PB radios is programmed so that it is allowed to operate in the respective primary band. 
     
     
         20 . The device of  claim 16 , wherein the multiple frequency bands include at least the VHF band and the UHF band.