Abstract: This invention relates to a method and apparatus for offering wireless telecommunication service. A switch such as an automatic Private Branch Exchange (PBX), equipped to communicate with Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) station sends ISDN signaling messages to and receives ISDN signaling messages from a protocol converter. The protocol converter, which also communicates with a wireless cell site, converts messages between the ISDN protocol and a protocol for communicating with the wireless cell site. The cell site sets up wireless connections to a mobile station, essentially in its prior art mode, and the PBX sets up connections to the cell site essentially in its prior art ISDN station control mode. The system can also hand off calls from one cell site to another connected to the same PBX, using the protocol converter to generate and distribute the locate request messages.

Abstract: This invention relates to a method and apparatus for offering wireless telecommunication service. Pairs of the transceivers of a wireless cell site are directly interconnected. When a request for service is received, a controller allocates a pair of the transceivers to handle the call. If the call is to the public switched telephone network, an unconnected transceiver is connected to a switching system, such as a toll switch, and a protocol converter converts between call control messages to and from the cell site and call control messages to and from the toll switch. If the cell site has directional antennas, a pair of transceivers connected to the directional antennas for serving the calling and called stations is selected; transceivers connected to an omni-directional antenna can be used for overflow traffic and for traffic between the toll office and the cell site.