GB2366952A - Short range base stations connected to main power wiring - Google Patents

Abstract

Short range RF base stations 64, 70, preferably Bluetooth, are connected to the main power wiring 80 to provide RF coverage in an area of interest, preferably within a building. The main power wiring connected short range base stations 64, 70 may be in the form of light bulb adapters (fig. 6) or power plug elements (fig. 7). A mobile communications network servicing an area of a building connects mobile and fixed terminals located withing the serviced area to each other and to the outside world. LAN 25 connected base stations 20 and main power wiring connected base stations 64, 70 are provided for creating complete in-building RF coverage, with the main power wiring base stations 64, 70 extending the coverage area provided by the LAN 25 connected base stations 20. The main power wiring 80 may be used to carry communications between main power wiring connected base stations 64, 70 and other power connected devices, including WAN connections (75, fig. 8). Alternatively (fig. 10) the information may be wirelessly transferred from any base station to a base station in the same piconet, or to a base station in an overlapping piconet. The arrangement may be used to enable a mobile user within the building to be notified of calls via a two-way pager 100, allowing an appropriate response such as directing the call to the nearest telephone and to enable users to access files on a personal computer, e.g. appointments and tasks. Use of existing wiring eliminates need for specialised wiring.

Description

2366952 IN-BUILDING COVERAGE AREA FOR BLUETOOTH ENABLED MOBILETERMINALS

Field of the Invention

This invention relates generally to the field of wireless communications

5 and in particular to a coverage area for short range wireless communication networks providing voice, data and video communication to wireless terminals located in a building.

Background of the Invention

Distribution of radiofrequency (RF) signals is particularly difficult in 10 areas with many obstacles which can scatter and absorb RF radiation, as for example inside a building. Generally, antennas are used for retransmitting the RF signals inside the building, and a cabling system is used for connecting the in-building antennas with a main antenna installed on top of the building. The cost for installing and maintaining such in-building 15 distribution networks is very high, time-consuming, and disruptive.

When a cordless or wireless telephone service is provisioned at a customer site, it is made sure that enough base stations are provided to ensure that a mobile terminal is always within the range of a base station.

Each base station is installed at the center of a cell of a coverage area.

20 Continuous radio coverage has to be provided for a mobile moving throughout the building and performing hand-offs in order to transfer the active call from one cell to another cell before the radio link is lost. For example, mobile terminals, like cellphones, may have a lower voice quality or not work at all inside a building due to poor RF coverage.

25 Repeater technology is well known in larger scale wireless technologies such as GSM or DECT. Implementations normally center around receiving an RF signal outside a building, transmitting the received signal down specially installed cables, and re-broadcasting the signal at selected points inside the building. A reverse process takes place for 30 transmitting from within the building. To improve coverage and capacity, low I powered picocells must be created around each repeater and this is an expensive solution due to installation costs and tariffed spectrum.

Recently, there has been significant interest in wireless LAN which requires no re-wiring due to moves, adds or changes of its terminals. A single 5 base transceiver may be installed at a ceiling of the room for covering a single area and providing wireless communications to mobile transceivers within this area. The base transceiver is connected to a bus of a main processor and a main memory in the base station via a transmission cable. Attaching the heavy base transceiver to the ceiling and connecting the base transceiver 10 with the base station via the transmission cable implies labour and material costs for wiring the cables and for reinforcing the ceiling.

US Patent No. 5,424,859 issued June 13, 1995 to Uehara et al., discloses a transceiver for a wireless LAN in-building communications system which can be fitted with luminaries. A power conversion circuit is disposed in 15 the luminaries housing for DC supplying voltage to the transceiver. A trans m it-receive bus interface device is connected to the LAN bus. The ceiling mounted transceiver uses radio antennas for performing wireless communications with the mobile devices and with the transmit-receive bus interface. Again, the solution of Uhehara et al. requires installation of the 20 trans m it-receive bus interface in each room of the building and provides poor RF coverage.

In addition, current cellular technology, such as GSM, is expensive and bulky for in-buiiding use, as this technology has been designed for wide area transmission conditions, and for fast mobility. As well, current wireless 25 technologies provide relatively low data rates compared to fixed line standards. Wireless users expect to obtain similar services as land-line users anywhere in the world.

Accordingly, there is a need for a low cost, integrated local mobility network for simultaneous voice and data communications and interaction 30 between electronic devices within buildings, while providing complete RF 1) coverage within the serviced area to allow fixed and mobile terminals to communicate with each other, and the outside world.

Summary of the Invention

5 It is an object of the present invention to alleviate totally or in part the disadvantages of the prior art associated with in-building wireless communications.

It is another object of the invention to provide a short range wireless communication network for providing voice, data and video communication to 10 wireless and/or wireline terminals located within a relatively small area, such as a building. Short range RF gateways, or base stations, are provided within the building structure, and arranged in such a way so as to cover all areas where an authorized terminal may travel, and also to allow connection with fixed/mobile terminals.

15 The network of the present invention may use, for example, short range RF Bluetooth (BT) base stations placed to provide a ubiquitous wireless communications network. In this case, the terminals subscribing to the network will also be Bluetooth enabled (BT-enabled) terminals. Bluetooth (BT) is a global RF communications standard that has been developed 20 primarily to allow data exchange between electronic devices placed in close proximity to each other.

The base stations are connected to each other through a processing center and the local area network (LAN). The processing center controls the operation of the base stations, monitors the location of the BT-enabled 25 terminals within the building, determines whether the terminal is mobile or not, and coordinates the voice/data communications. The processing center can also route external incoming and outgoing traffic to/from the appropriate communications device. The processing center may be incorporated into a PBX (private branch exchange), or in the router equipment, whichever is 0 available in the respective environment.

The short reach communication network comprises a LAN for providing a transport mechanism for voice, video and data signals; a plurality short range RF base stations connected to the LAN, each base station for providing a short range coverage area-, and a mobility center for operating the base 5 stations to establish communication between authorized terminals located within an area of interest. The base stations are placed at predetermined locations in the area of interest for servicing the entire area of interest. The mobility center also enables subscribing terminals within the area of interest to communicate with an outside communication network, e.g. a WAN, PSTN, 10 LAN, VPN.

According to one aspect of the invention, a system for implementing radio frequency (RF) communications in an area of interest serviced by a short reach communications network is provided. The system comprises LAN connected short range base stations for providing a primary RF coverage 15 area, and main power wiring connected short range base stations for extending the primary RF coverage area and providing complete RF coverage of the area of interest. The main power wiring of the building is used for fixed line communications between authorized mobile and fixed terminals, including wide area network (WAN) gateways. Llocal two-way 20 pagers for instant call-response communications according to a pre established response table and a tree menu structure may be used in the complete coverage area of the building.

The invention provides a user-friendly integrated short range wireless communications network. When the subscribers are mainly mobile inside the 25 building and communicate via cellular phones, pagers, or other portable electronic device, the wireless terminals may be provided with handover capabilities. The Bluetooth (BT) standard has not been specified to allow a mobile user to pass seamlessly from one coverage area to the next. The standard may however be expanded to cover handover, or the network may be provided with a very simple handover protocol.

4 The present invention also provides for low network costs due to the consumer technology involved, as well as low communications costs due to use of fixed wires, either telephony ore main power wiring, for distant transport. No cable installation or cable replacement is required as the 5 existing cables already present in most office buildings can be used.

Another advantage of the invention is that it allows use of multiple and simultaneous voice and data connections, by offering a relatively high bandwidth to numerous users under the supervision of the processing center.

Since the base stations and the subscribing terminals are provided with 10 compatible short range interfaces, once the processing center is incorporated into the private branch exchange (PBX) or into the router equipment, a universal communication protocol is created for the network inside the building.

The "Summary of the Invention" does not necessarily disclose all the

15 features essential for defining the invention; the invention may reside in a sub-combination of the disclosed features.

Brief Description of the Drawings

The invention will be now explained by way of example only and with 20 reference to the following drawings:

Figure I is a block diagram of a conventional Bluetooth (BT) base station; Figure 2 is a block diagram of the in-building mobile communication network; 25 Figure 3 illustrates the piconet of a cellphone; Figure 4 illustrates the piconet of an organiser; Figure 5 illustrates the piconet of a LAN repeater; Figure 6 is a front view of a BT light fitting adapter; Figure 7 is a perspective view of a BT power plug element; Figure 8 illustrates piconet extensions using light fitting adapters and power plug elements; Figure 9 illustrates the piconet extensions of Figure 8 using the main power wiring for communications; and 5 Figure 10 illustrates a local two-way pager operating in an in-building coverage area according to the invention.

Similar references are used in different figures to denote similar components.

10 Detailed Description of the Preferred Embodiment

The following description of a preferred embodiment is provided by way of example only and without limitation to the combination of features necessary for carrying the invention into effect.

Figure 1 illustrates a block diagram of base station for a short range 15 wireless network using Bluetooth standard, as shown on Ericsson's web page at hftp://bluetooth.ericsson.se/d efault. asp. Base station 10 uses an unlicensed RF spectrum band at 2.4 GHz.

A host interface 12 sets-up the connections between the base station and a LAN, and converts the incoming and outgoing signals to/from 20 signals according to the local protocols. A link manager 14 is responsible for setting up high level logical links, detecting BT-enabled devices within the coverage area of the base station, and reporting loss of existing connections.

A link controller 16 performs low level processing on the bits, to ensure reliability and timing, and picks out the logical data bit streams associated 25 with each channel of information embedded together in the physical stream, and vice versa.

As the wireless subscribers come into the operating range of the base station, they link to a RF section 18 using a modulated high frequency signal, for example a 2.4 GHz signal. Such subscribers could be mobile phones, personal computers (PC), laptops, or other electronic devices, e.g. medical 6 devices, equipped with a built-in short range module. The radio section 18 demodulates the information from the 2.4GHz wide-band signal into a base-band I Mbit rate bit-stream, and vice versa.

The operating range, or the coverage area of BT 10 is approximately 5 10 meters when no amplifier is used, and up to 100 meters with an amplifier.

As mentioned before, connections are automatically setup and maintained even when the subscribing terminals are not within the line of sight with the base station allowing the terminals to "talk" to each other on an ad hoc basis.

Figure 2 shows a block diagram of the in-building short range 10 communication network 15, according to a preferred embodiment of the invention. The network 15 comprises a plurality of gateways, or base stations 20-1 to 20-4, connected over a LAN 25. Sub-networks, or pico-networks (piconets) are established within the area of interest, and linked ad-hoc when the base-stations 20 are integrated into LAN 25. In the case when the 15 network 15 is based on the Bluetooth standard, the gateways are BT gateways, and the subscriber terminals are BT-enabled terminals. Of course, other short range RF protocols may be used as they emerge and Bluetooth is one example of technology able to provide these interfaces at acceptable prices.

20 A 'subscribing terminal', a 'registered terminal' or a 'registered user' refers in this document to a telephone, a pager, a personal computer, a laptop, a cellular phone, a notebook, an organizer, a medical device, and other similar electronic devices, adapted to be connected to a short range RF base station. Each base station has an operating range, or a coverage area.

25 One or more base stations may form a piconet. The term 'close range' or short range' refers herein to the ability of the base station to communicate with a wireless terminal located within a piconet.

The Bluetooth (BT) specification lays down how BT-enabled devices communicate, and establish protocols between themselves to use the short 30 range RF link to pass voice, video and data. A Bluetooth "user's profile" 7 defines how a device wishes to communicate, e.g. data rates, whether synchronous or asynchronous, etc. Several devices can coexist within such piconets under the supervision of one device being the master base station that coordinates communications and controls the RF resource. In the 5 preferred embodiment each base station uses these protocols to establish itself as a master station in its own piconet.

The piconets that are connected over LAN 25 are controlled in the processing centre 30 by a dedicated mobility management unit, or mobility centre 34, working alongside a conventional PBX call control 32, and a data 10 router 40. A registry database (not shown) contains the identity of all terminals registered to the in-building network 15, and also any associated attributes, such as for example communications access rights to the WAN 35, data access rights to the devices on the LAN 25, communications preferences associated with each user, physical access rights to building 15 areas, and other user access rights. In this way, all authorized terminals communicating with network 15 are registered in the registry database (not shown) and are uniquely recognizable, allowing the network operator to restrict or to extend user access rights, as appropriate.

The PBX call control 32 and the IP router 40 all operate in a 20 conventional manner, as is well known in the art, but interact with the mobility management unit 34 to allow routing to/from the mobile devices. In the simplest first physical embodiment the PBX call control 32, the IP router 34 and the mobility management unit 36 are software objects within a single processor 30. The processor 30 communicates inside the building over a 25 conventional Ethernet LAN 25 using the transmission control protocol (TCP) or the Internet protocol (IP) as is well known in the art, and also externally to the WAN 35 using TCP/IP protocols for voice and data communications. An integrated services digital network (ISDN) block 38 is used in the example of Figure 2 for transmissions over WAN 35.

8 Mobility centre 34 identifies the terminals authorized to communicate with the network 15, by performing authentication of registered subscribers wishing to initiate communications and choosing the appropriate communications protocol. Mobility centre 34 also detects visiting BT- enabled 5 devices within the coverage area of a base station 20, and initiates new user instances to determine visitor's access rights like communications access rights, data access rights, physical access to specific areas in the building, communications preferences, password allocation, and to authorize visiting terminals to access the network 15. Finally, the mobility centre 34 controls 10 the registration of the visitor's data (ID, access rights, password)- in the database.

In operation, whenever a user having a cellular phone 22 is within range of a base station, the respective base station logs the terminal presence, and the mobility management unit 34 communicates with the PBX 15 call control 32, setting up a connection with this particular base station. The incoming calls, either internal or external, arrive to the user cellular phone 22 via the base stations 20, such as gateway 20-4 in Figure 2. In the same way the cellular phone 22 is programmed to direct outgoing calls via the short range RF link, rather than via the wide area network infrastructure. In this 20 way, several calls can be handled by one base station.

In a similar way, use of laptop 28 will be detected by the mobility management unit 34 through the gateway 20-2, and will be connected automatically to the LAN, if recognized by network 15. All WAN connectivity, Le, Internet, will be available, subject to user access rights.

25 In another example, the user of electronic organizer 26 may specify his preference to be paged when an in-coming call arrives. The mobility management unit 34 instructs the PBX call control 32 to notify of any in-coming calls, and to put them on hold until instructed further, After receiving a fixed line incoming call the mobility management unit 34 sends an 0 alerting message to the organizer 26 and awaits a response. The response 9 may indicate to redirect the call to voice mail, or to forward the call to the nearest desk phone.

In the case of a real time communication, e.g. voice call, both ends (the communicator and the user) would be notified of the hold status by e. g.

5 an audio message. When in-building, the main focus is the wireless desktop rather than true mobility, so handovers are relatively infrequent as users stay in fixed positions when making calls or using their PC, but like to be able to change positions easily.

The standard may well be extended to cover a seamless hanclover for 10 a mobile user moving inside the building from one coverage area to another.

by putting the communications on hold until the link is re-established on the same or a different base station within a suitable timeout period. If the period is exceeded, the call is dropped, For example, if a user moves out of range of a base station 20 whilst 15 communicating the link is put on hold by both the mobility center 34 and the communicator, and a suitable message is generated to both parties. A timer is set and if the link is re-established before timeout, either on the same or on another base station, the communication continues. If the time expires, the communication is assumed to have ended and the system cleared down.

20 Base station 20 may be embedded in an electronic device for providing RF communications (receiving and transmitting) at one end, while the other end is connected to a mobility center 34 via LAN 35. Examples of physical presentations of base station 20 are illustrated in Figure 2 and described below.

25 A dedicated standalone RF only module BT-gateway 20-1 may be plugged into the LAN 25 or a telephone socket. Gateway 20-1 has its own coverage area and is capable of detecting a mobile terminal, subscribing or visiting, entering into its area of coverage. If for example organizer 26 enters the coverage area of the gateway 20-1, an alerting message may be 30 transmitted to the organizer 26 to inform the user of an urgent action.

Gateway 20-2 is a module build into, or added to a desk telephone 23. The telephone 23 is connected to other devices through the LAN 25, as well known, and also will operate as an IP telephone. Gateway 20-3 is built into a desktop PC 27.

5 If the gateway 20-2 detects a laptop/notebook 28 in its coverage area, it automatically connects laptop 28 to the LAN 25, if the laptop is adapted to communicate over the short range network 15. Similarly, the gateway 20-4 which is a module build into, or added to a desk telephone 23, establishes its own coverage area and is also connected to the LAN 25. All gateways are 10 also adapted to communicate with for example a cellular telephone 22 that enters the coverage area, if the telephone 22 is adapted to communicate over the short range network 15.

It is to be understood that any device like desktop charger, or holder, optionally powered from the LAN wiring and having a built-in BT module, as 15 well as any BT enabled device which can communicate on the LAN 35, may be considered as a base station.

When using BT enabled mobile terminals in a BT coverage area, no open interface is needed, As shown in Figure 3, a cordless BT enabled cellphone 33 has a desktop charger 32 connected to the LAN for drawing 20 power from it. Desktop charger 32 is a BT base station. Whenever in range, cellphone 33 uses the BT radio frequency for communications with the PBX 31 as if ti were a standard extension. Fixed terminals 35 can also access the mobile terminal 33 whilst it is in range of a base station. As the mobile terminal 33 moves within the building, the cellphone 33 may use other base 25 stations like 34 as appropriate.

Figure 4 illustrates a BT enabled organiser 41 which communicates with a second organiser 42 and also receives web pages via a PBX/Router 43, A BT enabled desktop charger 42 connected to the LAN is used for RF communications with organiser 41, while Bt enabled station 44 provides RF 30 communications with organiser 45.

Repeaters can also be used in the coverage area for transparently receiving and transmitting the communications signals. For this purpose, two or more base stations can be programmed to service all piconet activities in their immediate neighbourhood to provide a transparent coverage area for the 5 mobile terminals entering or leaving the respective piconets. Two or more base stations can be used simultaneously for collecting and transmitting the same information to/from a mobile terminal located within their range.

As shown in Figure 5, BT enabled mobile terminals 55, 56, 57, may be selectively connected to BT enabled base stations 52, 53, 54, within the 10 range, for sending and receiving the same information down all paths. LAN repeaters 52, 53, 54, are configured via a personal computer (PC) 51 to echo the RF activity to all base stations 52, 53, 54, such that BT mobile terminals 55, 56, 57,can communicate as if they were in the same piconet, even though they may be widely separated. When moving from one piconet to another, 15 new paths are set up by the base stations that come into range, while old paths may be lost for seamlessly moving within the coverage area. No obvious handover or glitch occurs as the base stations release the paths.

According to one embodiment of the invention, a complete in-building BT coverage area can be implemented using BT basestations that do not 20 require wiring or fixing. BT stations can be built, or inserted into existing lightbulb, fittings or powerplugs and connected through the main power wiring.

Figure 6 shows a typical BT base station in the form of a light fitting adapter 64 which takes power from the standard power wiring. A standard lightbulb 62 fits into the adapter 64. Figure 7 shows at 70 a typical BT base 25 station in the form of a power plug element which takes power from the main power wiring. The light BT enabled light bulb adapters 64 and the power plug elements 70 may take any standard forms which are commonly used in the industry.

Figure 8 illustrates piconet extensions using light fitting adapters 64 and power plug elements 70 for an in-building mobility network 15. In this 12 example, the standard power wiring 80 is used for supplying power to base station 64 and 70. The main power wiring connected base stations 64 and 70 are acting as repeaters, or piconet extenders for transferring the information through overlapping piconets. The piconet generated by the base stations 64 5 and 70 are extensions of the piconets generated by the LAN connected base stations 20, providing for a complete RF coverage area within the building.

It is to be noted that a complete RF coverage area may be implemented in a building just using the overlapping piconets generated by fixedly positioned base stations 64 and 70 without installing LAN wiring. The 10 main power wiring supplies power and can be on different phases. Base stations 64 and 70 can be fitted in the standard industry dimensions.

Processing centre 30 coordinates RF activities and provides access to WAN connections 75.

Figure 9 illustrates the piconet extensions of Figure 8 using the main 15 power wiring for communications with an in-building network. BT base stations 64 and 70 and other devices are connected to the main power wiring 80. As is well known in the art, a modulated signal may be used to carry information over the standard power wiring 80. In this case, a filter 60 is used to prevent the broadcasting of the working signal to the exterior. The base 20 stations 64 and 70 are controlled by the processing centre 30 for enabling communications with the outside world via WAN connections 75.

Large organizations generally occupy an entire building or an entire floor/s of a big building. As the personnel inside the organization often have commons activities, there is a need to know where people are and to 25 communicate quickly.

A large number of mobile terminals are used to enable easy communications between employees within the building. Cellphones for example, may become an invasive procedure especially when the receiving person sits in a meeting. Pagers sending two-way messages at no cost 11) within a building represent a non-invasive procedure and can provide instant two-way communications as well as organiser services to employees.

Figure 10 illustrates a BT enabled local two-way pager 100 for use in a building network 15 having a complete BT coverage area. As the local two 5 way pager 100 enters the coverage area within a building, the pager is recognized based on its identifier and network 15 begins to communicate with pager 100.

Pager 100 may be of the size of a credit card with an integrated micro controller which directly drives a large super key 130 and response keys 140, 10 a low power six-line LCD (liquid crystal display) 120, and a single chip BT transceiver which directly interfaces with the micro controller. In the example of Figure 10, response keys include buttons 1 to 5. A BT enabled LAN connected base sation 20 may provide wireless connections for the local two way pager 100.

15 The user of the pager 100, can access any fixed or mobile terminal within the coverage area and get information regarding attendance to planned activities, request call routing to the nearest telephone when needed, and any other services offered by network 15. The local two-way pagers 100 are registered with the network 15 and two-way communication is instantaneously 20 established when the identifier of the receiving pager is dialled. The two-way communications link is maintained between the calling pager and the receiving pager until a response is sent back.

Suppose the user of a local two-way pager 100 is tied in a meeting with a client and a paging message is received. By pressing once the super 25 key 130, the message and a number of possible answers are displayed on screen 120. The answers are organized in a pre-established response list displayed on screen 120 as shown bellow:

BUDGET MEETING NOW AT 2PM SUPERKEY I'LL BE THERE Button 1 GO AHEAD WITHOUT ME Button 2 14 I'LL CALL YOU LATER Button 3 CANCEL IT Button 4 The user may press response button 2 associated with the message "Go ahead without me" and go back to his client meeting. As mentioned 5 before, the localtwo-way pager is a rapid, non-invasive method of exchanging relevant messages. The selected response may be used as status info for a group of users, and network 15 can send a paging message to all of them.

In another example, network 15 might ask where to direct an external 10 call. Screen 120 will display the following information:

EXTERNAL CALL FROM 0181 987 1234 SUPERKEY (MOTOROLA LTD) Button 1 I'LL TAKE IT NOW Button 2 HOLD Button 3 15 SEND TO VOICEMAIL Button 4 The user might press button 3, leave the meeting, and pick up the nearest fixed line phone to take the call, as network 15 has knowledge about the location of the user in the complete RF coverage area and knows where to route the incoming call.

20 Organiser functions may be handled in a similar way, with the network and/or a personal computer (PC) generating messages and requesting a response. A short notice information and four possible answers may be displayed on screen 120 as shown below:

STAFF MEETING IN ROOM 2 SUPERKEY 25 IN 15 MINUTES Button 1 OK Button 2 I'LL BE LATE Button 3 CANCEL IT Button 4 The system may be programmed to route a unified messaging output from a user workstation to his local two-way pager 100, for informing about arrival of e-mails, faxes, telephone calls, voice mail messages, etc.

The user is able to access the network 15 from the pager using the 5 super key 130 to find out about incoming messages, or to trigger a tree menu structure driven by the response keys 140 for allowing the user to seiect a response. Screen 120 will display the following information:

Menu 1 SUPERKEY 10 DO NOT DISTURB Button 1 SHOW TODAY'S DIARY Button 2 SHOW WEEK Button 3 NEXT FREE APPOINTMENT Button 4 TO DO LIST Button 5 15 Pressing button 2 will be enough to inspect a diary, and do simple modifications like delete a planned action, i.e. an appointment. Similarly, pressing button 5 allows inspection of the "To do list" and the user may cross out a TO-DO when the action is completed. For creating entries the user has to return to his PC.

20 The local two-way pager 100 is a very low cost facility as there are no call charges, in a non-invasive environment with 100% contractibility.

The mobile communications network 15 of the invention is extremely low cost, while the protocols are flexible allowing multiple simultaneous voice and data communications. The main power wiring 80 may be used to carry 25 communications between main power wiring connected base stations 64, 70, and other power connected devices, including WAN connections 75.

Alternatively, the information may be wireless transferred from a base station to any base station within the same piconet, or in an overlapping piconet.

The complete in-building coverage area provided by the invention is a simple to install solution as it eliminates the need for specialised wiring and 16 fixing for connecting the basestations within the coverage area. It allows the use of local two-way pagers 100 to provide rapid, non-invasive call- response exchanging of information, Numerous modifications, variations, and adaptations may be made to 5 the particular embodiments of the invention without departing from the scope of the invention which is defined in the claims.

17

Claims (1)

1. Claims:

   1. A system for implementing radio frequency (RF) communications in an area of interest serviced by a short reach communications network, 5 comprising:

   LAN connected short range base stations for providing a primary RF coverage area; and main power wiring connected short range base stations for extending said primary RF coverage area and providing complete RF coverage of said 10 area of interest.

   2. The system of claim 1, implemented with a Bluetooth (BT) standard.

   3. The system of any of claims I or 2, wherein said area of interest is a 15 building.

   4. The system of claim 1, wherein said main power wiring connected short range base stations are light bulb adapters.

   20 5. The system of claim 1, wherein said main power wiring connected short range base stations are power plug elements.

   6. The system of claim 3, wherein the main power wiring of said building is used for fixed line communications between authorized mobile and fixed 25 terminals, said fixed terminals including wide area network (WAN) gateways.

   7. The system of claim 1, wherein said main power wiring connected short range base stations for RF communications between authorized mobile and fixed terminals, said fixed terminals including WAN gateways.

   8. The system of any of claims 6 and 7, wherein said authorized mobile terminals are local two-way pagers for instant call-response communications according to a pre-established response list.

   5 9. The system of claim 8, wherein each said local two-way pagers having an identifier for receiving a unified messaging output associated with said identifier.

   10. The system of claim 8, wherein said local two-way pagers can access 10 a file in a personal computer and delete planned actions when completed.

   11. A system for implementing radio frequency (RF) communications in an area of interest, comprising main power wiring connected short range base stations providing RIF coverage area in said area of interest.

   12. The system of claim 11, implemented with a Bluetooth (BT) standard.

   13. The system of any of claims 11 or 12, wherein said area of interest is a building.

   14. The system of claim 11, wherein said main power wiring connected short range base stations are light bulb adapters.

   15. The system of claim 11, wherein said main power wiring connected 25 short range base stations are power plug elements.

   16, The system of claim 13, wherein the main power wiring of said building is used for fixed line communications between authorized mobile and fixed terminals, said fixed terminals including wide area network (WAN) 30 gateways.

   19 17. The system of claim 11, wherein said main power wiring connected short range base stations for RF communications between authorized mobile and fixed terminals, said fixed terminals including WAN gateways.

   5 18. The system of any of claims 16 and 17, wherein said authorized mobile terminals are local two-way pagers for instant call-response communications according to a pre-established response list.

   19. The system of claim 18, wherein each said local two-way pagers having an identifier for receiving a unified messaging output associated with said identifier.

   20. The system of claim 18, wherein said local two-way pagers can access a file in a personal computer and delete planned actions when completed.