Network management

• US 10,159,002 B2
• Filed: 08/08/2014
• Issued: 12/18/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 08/08/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Intel IP Corporation (Intel Corporation)
• Inventors: Sergeyev, Vadim, Maltsev, Alexander, Davydov, Alexei, Fwu, Jong-Kae
• Primary Examiner(s): Ho, Chuong T
• Application Number:
  US14/903,576
• Publication Number:
  US 20160156440A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,593 Days
• Field of Search: 370328, 370329, 370330, 370252, 370254, 370253
• CPC Class Codes: E04G 23/0218 Increasing or restoring the load-bearing capacity of building construction elements E04G23/0203 and E04G23/0266 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: E04H 9/025 Structures with concrete columns
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0617 for beam forming
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0626 Channel coefficients, e.g. channel state information [CSI]
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0639 Using selective indices, e.g. of a codebook, e.g. pre-distortion matrix index [PMI] or for beam selection
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1812 Hybrid protocols; Hybrid automatic repeat request [HARQ]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0048 Allocation of pilot signals, i.e. of signals known to the receiver
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0053 Allocation of signaling, i.e. of overhead other than pilot signals
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0057 Physical resource allocation for CQI
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0058 Allocation criteria
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/006 Quality of the received signal, e.g. BER, SNR, water filling
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/14 Two-way operation using the same type of signal, i.e. duplex
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/1469 using time-sharing
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/26 Cell enhancers or enhancement, e.g. for tunnels, building shadow
• 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 36/08 Reselecting an access point
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/14 Reselecting a network or an air interface
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/28 involving a plurality of connections, e.g. multi-call or multi-bearer connections
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/32 by location or mobility data, e.g. speed data
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/023 : using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/70 : Services for machine-to-machine communication [M2M] or machine type communication [MTC]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/12 : using downlink control channel
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/16 : Discovering, processing access restriction or access information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0206 : in access points, e.g. base stations access point devices per se H04W88/08
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0209 : in terminal devices terminal devices per se H04W88/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0219 : where the power saving management affects multiple terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 56/0005 : synchronizing of arrival of multiple uplinks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/006 : with additional information processing, e.g. for direction or speed determination
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/0446 : Resources in time domain, e.g. slots or frames
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/20 : Control channels or signalling for resource management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/541 : using the level of interference
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 74/0833 : Random access procedures, e.g. with 4-step access
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/10 : Connection setup
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/14 : Direct-mode setup
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/27 : Transitions between radio resource control [RRC] states
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/02 : Processing of mobility data, e.g. registration information at HLR [Home Location Register] or VLR [Visitor Location Register]; Transfer of mobility data, e.g. between HLR, VLR or external networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/02 : Terminal devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/04 : adapted for relaying to or from another terminal or user
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/08 : Access point devices
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 : in wireless communication networks

Abstract

Embodiments relate to network management of a wireless network in which inactive cells are selectively activated thereby changing the radio environment of a user equipment. The changed radio environment is assessed to determine a preferred distribution of active cells for that user equipment.

Claims

1. An apparatus for managing a plurality of base stations of wireless cells for serving a user equipment, the plurality of wireless base stations comprising a set of active base stations and a set of inactive base stations, the apparatus comprising:

storage to store a network management policy; and

processing circuitry, coupled with the storage, the processing circuitry to;

activate a first set of inactive base stations of the set of inactive base stations based on the network management policy;

assess, after activation of the first set of inactive base stations, a radio environment associated with the active base stations; and

deactivate a set of base stations of the active base stations in response to an assessment of the radio environment following said activation,

wherein the apparatus is provided in or in a part of a network management system, and

wherein the network management policy includes one or more objectives against which network performance can be assessed, including managing power consumption of at least one user equipment (UE) or base station during at least one of a data exchange or a signaling exchange.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 in which said processing circuitry to assess the radio environment associated with the active base stations comprises processing circuitry to evaluate at least one criterion associated with the radio environment.

3. The apparatus of claim 2 in which the criterion associated with the radio environment comprises a measure associated with at least one of a received power associated with the UE and at least one active base station, a quality of service associated with one or both of the UE and the at least one active base station, a traffic load associated with the at least one active base station, a signal to noise ratio of a predetermined signal of at least one of the UE and the at least one active base station, a signal to interference and noise ratio of a predetermined signal of at least one of the UE and the at least one active base station, interference associated with a predetermined signal of at least one of the UE and the at least one active base station, a location associated with the at least one active base station, a mutual location associated with the UE and the at least one active base station, a number of UEs associated with the at least one active base station, and channel state information associated with the UE and the at least one active base station.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 in which the processing circuitry to assess the radio environment associated with the active base stations comprises processing circuitry to request the UE to provide measurement data associated with the active base stations.

5. The apparatus of claim 4 in which the measurement data comprises data relating to a reference signal associated with at least one of the UE and the at least one active base station.

6. The apparatus of claim 5 in which the reference signal comprises at least one of a channel state information reference signal, a cell specific reference signal, a position reference signal, a sounding reference signal and a demodulation reference signal.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 in which the processing circuitry to assess the radio environment associated with the active base stations comprises processing circuitry to determine one or more than one distance associated with the UE and the active base stations.

8. The apparatus of claim 1 in which the processing circuitry to activate the first set of inactive base stations comprises processing circuitry to asses a criterion associated with the active base stations.

9. The apparatus of claim 8 in which the criterion associated with the active base stations comprises assessing a criterion associated with at least one other active base station.

10. The apparatus of claim 9 in which the criterion associated with the active base stations comprises a criterion associated with different classes of one or more than one base station.

11. The apparatus of claim 1 in which the processing circuitry to assess the radio environment comprises processing circuitry to establish multivariate optimisation criterion associated with the UE and the base stations and solving that multivariate optimisation criterion.

12. The apparatus of claim 1 in which the base stations comprise at least one or more than one of:

at least two wireless base stations serving a common geographical region, and at least two wireless base stations having different classes in a hierarchical arrangement of the plurality of base stations.

13. One or more non-transitory, computer-readable media having instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause a network management system to manage a set of base stations of wireless cells for serving one or more UEs, the set of base stations comprising a set of active base stations and a set of inactive base stations, wherein to manage the set of base stations, the network management system is to:

activate a first set of selected base stations of the set of inactive base stations based on a network management policy;

assess, after said activation of the first set of selected base stations, at least one performance metric associated with at least one active base station of the active base stations; and

deactivate a set of selected base stations of the active base stations in response to said assessing

wherein the network management policy includes one or more objectives against which network performance can be assessed, including managing power consumption of at least one UE or base station during at least one of a data exchange or a signaling exchange.

14. The one or more non-transitory, computer-readable media of claim 13 in which said assessing comprises evaluating at least one performance metric associated with a radio environment of the at least one active base station.

15. The one or more non-transitory, computer-readable media of claim 13 in which the performance metric comprises a measure associated with at least one of a received power associated with the UE and the at least one active base station, a quality of service associated with one or both of the UE and the at least one active base station, a traffic load associated with the at least one active base station, a signal to noise ratio of a predetermined signal of at least one of the UE and the at least one active base station, a signal to interference and noise ratio of a predetermined signal of at least one of the UE and the at least one active base station, interference associated with a predetermined signal of at least one of the UE and the at least one active base station, a location associated with the at least one active base station, a mutual location associated with the UE and the at least one active base station, a number of UEs associated with the at least one active base station, and channel state information associated with the UE and the at least one active base station.

16. The one or more non-transitory, computer-readable media of claim 13 in which to assess the network management system is to request a UE to provide measurement data associated with the at least one active base station.

17. The one or more non-transitory, computer-readable media of claim 16 in which the measurement report data comprises data relating to a reference signal associated with the at least one active base station.

18. The one or more non-transitory, computer-readable media of claim 17 in which the reference signal comprises at least one of a channel state information reference signal, a cell specific reference signal, a position reference signal, a sounding reference signal and a demodulation reference signal.

19. The one or more non-transitory, computer-readable media of claim 13 in which to assess the network management system is to determine one or more than one distance associated with a UE and the at least one active base station.

20. The one or more non-transitory, computer-readable media claim 13 in which to activate the first set of selected base stations the network management system is to assess a criterion associated with the active base stations.

21. The one or more non-transitory, computer-readable media of claim 20 in which the criterion associated with the active base stations comprises assessing a criterion associated with at least one other active base station.

22. The one or more non-transitory, computer-readable media of claim 21 in which the criterion associated with the active base stations comprises a criterion associated with different classes of one or more than one active base station.

23. The one or more non-transitory, computer-readable media of claim 13 in which to assess the network management system is to establish multivariate optimisation criterion associated with the UE and the active base stations and solve that multivariate optimisation criterion.