A distributed radio base station (20) comprises a radio equipment controller (REC) (22) situated at a main site (23) and a radio equipment (RE) (24) situated at a remote site (25). A remote unit (102, 104, 106, 108, 110, 124) configured to engage in direct communications with the radio equipment controller (REC) is also situated at the remote site (25). An internal interface (26) connects the radio equipment controller (REC) and the radio equipment (RE). Advantageously, the internal interface (26) also encapsulates the direct communications between the radio equipment controller (REC) (22) and the remote unit, thereby obviating a separate physical link between the radio equipment controller (REC) and the remote unit. A new physical link (130) transmits, between the radio equipment (RE) and the remote unit, the direct communications between the radio equipment controller (REC) and the remote unit which are encapsulated over the internal interface (26). The remote unit can take various differing forms, including that of an antenna (102) with remote electrical tilt control; a tower mounted amplifier (TMA) (104); a Transmission network unit (106); a separate radio base station (108) which is co-located at the remote site; a proprietary equipment unit (110); or even one or more cascaded radio equipments (RE) (124).
This application claims the benefit and priority of the following U.S. Provisional Patent Applications Ser. No. , all of which are incorporated herein by reference: (1) U.S. Provisional Application 60/520,323 filed Nov. 17, 2003, entitled "Encapsulation of Diverse Protocols Over Internal Interface of Distributed Radio Base Station"; (2) U.S. patent application Ser. No. 60/520,324 filed Nov. 17, 2003, entitled "Encapsulation of Independent Transmissions Over Internal Interface of Distributed Radio Base Station"; (3) U.S. Patent Application Ser. No. 60/520,364 filed 11/17/2003, entitled "Interface, Apparatus, and Method for Cascaded Radio Units In A Main-Remote Radio Base Station"; and, (4) U.S. Patent Application Ser. No. 60/520,325filed Nov. 17, 2003, entitled "Pre-Start-Up Procedure For Internal Interface of Distributed Radio Base Station". This application is related to the following simultaneously filed U.S. patent applications, all of which are incorporated by reference herein in their entirety: (1) U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/909,835 entitled "Encapsulation of Diverse Protocols Over Internal Interface of Distributed Radio Base station" and (2) U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/909,843 entitled "Pre-Start-Up Procedure For Internal Interface of Distributed Radio Base station".
