Packet non-replicating comparator device for digital simulcast packet distribution

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Generally, the present invention is directed to a packet non-replicating comparator device for use in a digital simulcast radio communication system which generates a single seed copy of a timestamped information data packet (per channel) for transmission to either a multicast capable packet-switched network, such as known local and wide area network (LAN/WAN) packet-switched communication systems, or to a packet duplicator coupled to a unicast capable packet-switched network.
For this purpose, the multicast capability of packet-switched networks is utilized to simplify the hardware and software complexity at the comparator site, by assigning the responsibility for performing simulcast (timestamped) packet replication and distribution (to the appropriate transmitters) to the coupled packet-switched network.
As a result, the elimination of the comparator performed function of sourcing multiple (replicated) packets of a seed copy frees up valuable link bandwidth and processing power that may be used to support (sequentially source) the generation of multiple non-replicated packets corresponding to associated ones of multiple channels.
The comparator construction described herein also allows using a single comparator device to provide information packet voting (and time stamping) for multiple simulcast channel operation.
The present invention can be more fully described with reference to FIGS.
2-4.
FIG.
2 illustrates a block diagram depiction of a first embodiment of the present invention.
Referring to FIG.
2, there is shown a non-packet replicating comparator device 20 coupled to a multicast capable packet network 50 for performing simulcast packet distribution.
The comparator device 20 receives a digital information data packet frame from each of a plurality of signal sources, such as base stations (not shown).
Each packet frame is analyzed by the comparator device 20 which then determines, in a manner well known in the art, the best packet frame based on a comparison of the signal quality metrics of all the received packet frames