Radio communication system, radio station, network operation management apparatus, and network optimization method

• US 10,015,703 B2
• Filed: 03/15/2013
• Issued: 07/03/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 03/15/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NEC Corporation
• Original Assignee: NEC Corporation
• Inventors: Futaki, Hisashi, Kobayashi, Kosei
• Primary Examiner(s): ADHAMI, MOHAMMAD SAJID
• Application Number:
  US14/385,382
• Publication Number:
  US 20150078344A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,936 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/02 Arrangements for optimising operational condition
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/10 Scheduling measurement reports ; Arrangements for measurement reports
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/00833 Handover statistics
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/00837 Determination of triggering parameters for hand-off

Abstract

A radio communication system, a radio station, a network operation management apparatus, and a network optimization method are provided that make it possible to avoid performance degradation in the entire system when network optimization is performed individually. In the radio communication system in which radio stations perform network optimization based on statistical communication quality in at least one cell, a radio station (10) notifies information related to a change in statistical communication quality in a cell under the radio station (10) to another radio station (20) or a network apparatus (30) managing the another radio station.

Claims

1. A radio communication system in which radio stations perform network optimization based on statistical communication quality in at least one cell, wherein a first radio station comprises:

at least one interface connected with at least one of a second radio station and a network apparatus, wherein the network apparatus manages the second radio station;

receive, from the second radio station or the network apparatus via the at least one interface, a request for information indicating a change in statistical communication quality in a first cell of the first radio station, wherein the change was caused by execution of network optimization in a second cell of the second radio station; and

responsive to the request, send to the second radio station or the network apparatus via the at least one interface, the information indicating the change in statistical communication quality in the first cell of the first radio station.

2. The radio communication system according to claim 1, wherein the second radio station or the network apparatus uses the information indicating the change in statistical communication quality for network re-optimization.

3. The radio communication system according to claim 1, wherein the request includes a determination condition used for determination of the change in statistical communication quality, and the at least one processor is further configured to send the information indicating the change in statistical communication quality in accordance with the determination condition, and

wherein the determination condition includes at least one of a type of statistical communication quality to be sent, statistical area information indicating a target area, statistical time information indicating a time of performing the determination, determination time information indicating a reference time used for the determination of the change, and statistical interval information indicating an interval of calculating or checking statistical communication quality.

4. The radio communication system according to claim 1, wherein the request includes a sending condition indicating a method for sending the information indicating the change in statistical communication quality, and

wherein the at least one processor is further configured to

send the information indicating the change in statistical communication quality in accordance with the sending condition.

5. The radio communication system according to claim 4, wherein the sending condition is at least one of a one-shot, periodic, and a trigger base for sending when a predetermined condition is met.

6. The radio communication system according to claim 1, wherein the information indicating the change in statistical communication quality includes at least one of information indicating a degradation in statistical communication quality, information about statistical communication quality that has degraded, and information about statistical communication quality that has changed.

7. The radio communication system according to claim 6, wherein the information indicating the degradation in statistical communication quality is information about whether or not predetermined statistical communication quality has degraded.

8. The radio communication system according to claim 6, wherein the information indicating the change in statistical communication quality is information including at least one of predetermined statistical communication quality that has degraded, predetermined statistical communication quality that has improved, and predetermined statistical communication quality that has not changed by a predetermined value or higher, or by a predetermined change rate or higher.

9. The radio communication system according to claim 6, wherein the information about statistical communication quality that has degraded includes at least one of a type of statistical communication quality that has degraded, an amount or a rate of degradation in statistical communication quality that has degraded, a value of statistical communication quality, and information indicating that there is no statistical communication quality that has degraded.

10. The radio communication system according to claim 6, wherein the information about statistical communication quality that has changed includes at least one of a type of statistical communication quality that has changed, an amount or a rate of change in statistical communication quality that has changed, a value of statistical communication quality, and information indicating that there is no statistical communication quality that has changed.

11. The radio communication system according to claim 1,

wherein the at least one processor is further configured to:

send location information of the first radio station to the second radio station or the network apparatus.

12. The radio communication system according to claim 1,

wherein the at least one processor is further configured to:

send information including at least one of a degree of interference between neighbor cells, the number of radio terminals in a cell, and an increase or a decrease in the number of radio terminals in a cell.

13. The radio communication system according to claim 1, wherein the statistical communication quality is at least one of predefined statistical communication quality, statistical communication quality associated beforehand with a type or purpose of network optimization, statistical communication quality indicated by the first radio station, and statistical communication quality indicated by the second radio station.

14. A first radio station in a radio communication system in which radio stations perform network optimization based on statistical communication quality in at least one cell, the first radio station comprising:

at least one interface connected with at least one of a second radio station and a network apparatus the manages the second radio station;

and at least one processor configured to;

receive, from the second radio station or the network apparatus via the at least one interface, a request for information indicating a change in statistical communication quality in a first cell of the first radio station, wherein the change was caused by execution of network optimization in a second cell of the second radio station; and

responsive to the request, send to the second radio station or the network apparatus via the at least one interface the information indicating the change in statistical communication quality.

15. The first radio station according to claim 14, wherein the second radio station or the network apparatus uses the information indicating the change in the statistical communication quality for network re-optimization.

16. The first radio station according to claim 14, wherein the request includes a determination condition used for determination of the change in statistical communication, and the at least one processor is further configured to send the information indicating the change in statistical communication in accordance with the determination condition, and wherein the determination condition includes at least one of a type of statistical communication quality to be sent, statistical area information indicating a target area, statistical time information indicating a time of performing the determination, determination time information indicating a reference time used for the determination of the change, and statistical interval information indicating an interval of calculating or checking statistical communication quality.

17. The first radio station according to claim 15, wherein the request includes a sending condition indicating a method for sending the information indicating the change in statistical communication quality, and wherein the at least one processor is further configured to:

send the information indicating the change in statistical communication quality in accordance with the sending condition.

18. The first radio station according to claim 17, wherein the sending condition is at least one of a one-shot, periodic, and a trigger base sending when a predetermined condition is met.

19. A second radio station in a radio communication system in which radio stations perform network optimization based on statistical communication quality in at least one cell, the second radio station comprising:

at least one interface connected with at least one of a first radio station and a network apparatus, wherein the network apparatus manages the second radio station;

and

at least one processor configured to;

send, to the first radio station via the at least one interface, a request for information indicating a change in statistical communication quality in a first cell of the first radio station, wherein the change was caused by execution of network optimization in a second cell of the second radio station; and

receive, from the first radio station via the at least one interface, the information indicating the change in statistical communication quality.

20. The second radio station according to claim 19, wherein the

at least processor is further configured to perform network re-optimization using the information indicating the change in statistical communication quality.

21. The second radio station according to claim 19, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to perform the network optimization before sending the request.

22. The second radio station according to claim 19, wherein the request includes a determination condition used for determination of the change in statistical communication quality, and the determination condition includes at least one of a type of statistical communication quality to be notified, statistical area information indicating a target area, statistical time information indicating a time of performing the determination, determination time information indicating a reference time used for the determination of the change, and statistical interval information indicating an interval of calculating or checking statistical communication quality.

23. The second radio station according to claim 19, wherein the request includes a sending condition indicating a method for sending the information indicating the change in statistical communication quality.

24. The second radio station according to claim 23, wherein the sending condition is at least one of a one-shot, periodic, and a trigger base for sending when a predetermined condition is met.

25. A network operation management apparatus which manages a network including a first radio station that performs network optimization based on statistical communication quality in at least one cell, the network operation management apparatus comprising:

at least one interface connected with at least one of the first radio station and a second radio station;

and at least one processor configured to;

send, to the second radio station via the at least one interface, a request for information indicating a change in statistical communication quality in a second cell of the second radio station, wherein the change was caused by execution of network optimization in a first cell of the first radio station; and

receive, from the second radio station via the at least one interface, the information indicating the change in statistical communication quality.

26. The network operation management apparatus according to claim 25, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to perform network re-optimization using the information indicating the change in statistical communication quality.

27. The network operation management apparatus according to claim 25, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to perform network optimization before sending the request.

28. A network optimization method in a radio communication system in which radio stations perform network optimization based on statistical communication quality in at least one cell, the method comprising:

receiving, at a first radio station, from a second radio station or a network apparatus, a request for information indicating a change in statistical communication quality in a first cell of the first radio station, wherein the network apparatus manages the second radio station, wherein the change was caused by execution of network optimization in a second cell of the second radio station; and

responsive to the request, sending to the second radio station or the network apparatus, the information indicating the change in statistical communication quality.

29. The network optimization method according to claim 28, further comprising:

performing, at the second radio station or the network apparatus, network re-optimization using the information indicating the change in statistical communication quality.

30. The network optimization method according to claim 28,

wherein the request includes a determination condition used for determination of the change in statistical communication quality, and the first radio station sends the information indicating the change in statistical communication quality in accordance with the determination condition, and

wherein the determination condition includes at least one of a type of statistical communication quality to be sent, statistical area information indicating a target area, statistical time information indicating a time of performing the determination, determination time information indicating a reference time used for the determination of the change, and statistical interval information indicating an interval of calculating or checking statistical communication quality.

31. The network optimization method according to claim 28, wherein the request includes a sending condition indicating a method for sending the information indicating the change in statistical communication quality, the method further comprising:

sending, at the first radio station, the information indicating the change in statistical communication quality in accordance with the sending condition.

32. The network optimization method according to claim 31, wherein the sending condition is at least one of a one-shot, periodic, and a trigger base for sending when a predetermined condition is met.

33. A network optimization method for a first radio station in a radio communication system in which radio stations perform network optimization based on statistical communication quality in at least one cell, the method comprising:

receiving, at the first radio station, from a second radio station or an upper-level network apparatus, a request for information indicating a change in statistical communication quality in a first cell of the first radio station, wherein the upper-level network apparatus manages the second radio station, wherein the change was caused by execution of network optimization in a second cell of the second radio station;

responsive to the request, calculating the information indicating a change in statistical communication quality; and

sending, to the second radio station or the upper-level network apparatus, the information indicating the change in statistical communication.

34. A network optimization method for a first radio station in a radio communication system in which radio stations perform network optimization based on statistical communication quality in at least one cell, the method comprising:

sending, at the first radio station, to a second radio station, a request for information indicating a change in statistical communication quality in a second cell of the second radio station, wherein the network apparatus manages the first radio station, wherein the change was caused by execution of network optimization in a first cell of the first radio station; and

receiving the information indicating a change in statistical communication quality from the second radio station.