Adjusting signal power to increase performance of communication links of communication nodes

• US 10,609,651 B2
• Filed: 05/04/2015
• Issued: 03/31/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 05/05/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ISCO International Inc.
• Original Assignee: ISCO International LLC
• Inventors: Abdelmonem, Amr, Myers, William, Myers, Ted, Seoane, Jorge, Galeev, Mikhail, Komoravolu, Krishna, Wang, Zhigang, Reichard, Jr., Gordon
• Primary Examiner(s): Dean, Raymond S
• Application Number:
  US14/702,855
• Publication Number:
  US 20150319707A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,793 Days
• Field of Search: 455522, 370318
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 11/005 of intercell interference
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 11/0066 of narrowband interference narrowband interference reduction H04B1/1036
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0021 in which codes are applied as a frequency-domain sequences, e.g. MC-CDMA
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0023 Time-frequency-space
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/006 Quality of the received signal, e.g. BER, SNR, water filling
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0073 Allocation arrangements that take into account other cell interferences for intercell interference mitigation or co-ordination in orthogonal multiplex systems H04J11/005
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/02 Arrangements for optimising operational condition
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/08 Testing, supervising or monitoring using real traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/10 Scheduling measurement reports ; Arrangements for measurement reports
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/241 taking into account channel quality metrics, e.g. SIR, SNR, CIR, Eb/lo
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/243 taking into account interferences
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/541 using the level of interference
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/542 using measured or perceived quality
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/08 Access point devices

Abstract

A system that incorporates aspects of the subject disclosure may perform operations including, for example, obtaining performance measurements for a number of sectors or a number of paths and determining whether one or more of the performance measurements are below a threshold. A power level of at least a portion of a received uplink signal is adjusted to increase a performance measurement of an affected sector of the number of sectors or an affected path of the number of paths falling below the threshold. A determination is made as to whether the adjusting of the power level of at least the portion of the received uplink signal has improved the performance measurement of the affected sector or the affected path. Other embodiments are disclosed.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

obtaining, by a processing system including a processor, a plurality of Signal to Interference plus Noise Ratio (SINR) measurements for a plurality of sectors of a base station;

averaging, by the processing system, the plurality of SINR measurements obtained for the plurality of sectors of the base station to obtain a sector-average SINR measurement;

determining, by the processing system, whether the sector-average SINR measurement is below a SINR threshold, wherein the SINR threshold is determined according to a time of day;

determining, by the processing system, a power level resolution according to the time of day;

adjusting, by the processing system, a power level of at least a portion of a received signal received at the base station, according to the power level resolution, to increase the sector-average SINR measurement of the base station, wherein the adjusting of the power level of at least the portion of the received signal comprises adjusting a control of a signal power adjusting circuit of a receiver portion of the base station;

determining, by the processing system, an average SINR measurement of another base station, obtained prior to the adjusting of the power level of the at least a portion of the receive signal received at the base station, wherein the average SINR measurement of the another base station comprises an average over sectors of the another base station;

determining, by the processing system, whether the adjusting of the power level of at least the portion of the received signal received at the base station has reduced the average SINR measurement of the another base station; and

reversing, by the processing system, at least in part the adjusting of the power level of at least the portion of the received signal received at the base station, responsive to the determining that the SINR measurement of the another base station has been reduced,

wherein the adjusting of the power level of at least the portion of the received signal further comprises;

determining, by the processing system, an amount of adjustment of the power level of at least the portion of the received signal according to the power level resolution, to obtain a determined amount, according to a time of day and according to existence of an event at which a plurality of people congregate; and

adjusting, by the processing system, the power level of at least the portion of the received signal according to the determined amount; and

determining, by the processing system, whether the adjusting of the power level of at least the portion of the received signal has improved the sector-average SINR measurement.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the adjusting of the power level of at least the portion of the received signal comprises increasing a magnitude of at least the portion of the received signal, or decreasing the magnitude of at least the portion of the received signal.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the increasing the magnitude of at least the portion of the received signal comprises applying a signal gain that does not exceed an amplification threshold.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the decreasing the magnitude of at least the portion of the received signal comprises applying a signal attenuation that does not exceed an attenuation threshold.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising adjusting at least a portion of a downlink signal responsive to the adjusting of the power level of at least the portion of the received signal, wherein the adjusting of the at least the portion of the downlink signal comprises adjusting a control of a signal power adjusting circuit of a transmitter portion of the base station.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining, by the processing system, the amount of the adjustment of the power level of at least the portion of the received signal, to obtain the determined amount, is further according to a key performance indicator (KPI).

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the average SINR measurement of the another base station comprises an average over paths of the another base station, and wherein at least the portion of the received signal comprises a resource block.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising responsive to determining that the adjusting has not increased the sector-average SINR measurement above the SINR threshold, reversing, by the processing system, at least in part the adjusting of the power level of at least the portion of the received signal.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the SINR threshold is determined according to a key performance indicator (KPI).

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the processing system comprises the base station, a wireless access point, or a mobile communication device, and wherein the received signal comprises an uplink signal or a downlink signal.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the received signal is associated with a first cell site of a plurality of cell sites, and wherein the method further comprises determining, by the processing system, whether the adjusting of the power level of at least the portion of the received signal has reduced a SINR measurement of a second cell site of the plurality of cell sites below the SINR threshold.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the processing system comprises the first cell site.

13. The method of claim 11, further comprising reversing, by the processing system, at least in part, the adjusting of the power level of at least the portion of the received signal responsive to determining that the SINR measurement of the second cell site has been reduced below the SINR threshold.

29. The method of claim 1, wherein the event comprises a sporting event.

30. The method of claim 1, wherein the event comprises a convention.

31. The method of claim 1, wherein the event anomalously impacts traffic conditions.

14. A system, comprising:

a processing system including a processor; and

a memory that stores executable instructions that, when executed by the processor, facilitate performance of operations, the operations comprising;

obtaining Signal to Interference plus Noise Ratio (SINR) measurements for a plurality of sectors;

determining an average SINR measurement based on the SINR measurements of the plurality of sectors;

determining whether the SINR measurement is below a SINR threshold;

determining a power level resolution according to a time of day;

adjusting a magnitude of at least a portion of a base station signal of a base station according to the power level resolution, to increase the average SINR measurement, wherein the adjusting of the at least the portion of the base station signal comprises adjusting a control of a signal power adjusting circuit of a receiver portion of the base station, and wherein the adjusting of the magnitude of at least the portion of the base station signal further comprises;

determining an amount of adjustment of the magnitude of at least the portion of the base station signal according to the power level resolution, to obtain a determined amount, according to a time of day and according to existence of an event at which a plurality of people congregate; and

adjusting the magnitude of at least the portion of the base station signal according to the determined amount;

determining whether the adjusting of the magnitude of at least the portion of the base station signal has improved the average SINR measurement;

in response to determining that the adjusting of the magnitude of at least the portion of the base station signal has not improved the average SINR measurement, reversing the adjusting of the magnitude of at least the portion of the base station signal;

determining an average SINR measurement of another base station, obtained prior to the adjusting of the magnitude of at least the portion of the base station signal of the base station, wherein the average SINR measurement of the another base station comprises an average over sectors of the another base station;

determining whether the adjusting of the magnitude of at least the portion of the base station signal has reduced the average SINR measurement of the another base station; and

in response to determining that the adjusting of the magnitude of at least the portion of the base station signal has reduced the SINR measurement of the another base station, reversing the adjusting of the magnitude of at least the portion of the base station signal.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the adjusting of the magnitude of at least the portion of the base station signal comprises increasing the magnitude of at least the portion of the base station signal, or decreasing the magnitude of at least the portion of the base station signal.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the increasing of the magnitude of at least the portion of the base station signal, the decreasing of the magnitude of at least the portion of the base station signal or both, comprises adjusting a signal gain applied to at least the portion of the base station signal.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the decreasing of the magnitude of at least the portion of the base station signal comprises adjusting a signal attenuation applied to at least the portion of the base station signal.

18. The system of claim 14, wherein the base station signal comprises an uplink signal, a downlink signal or both an uplink and a downlink signal.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the uplink signal and the downlink signal are resident at one base station.

20. The system of claim 14, wherein the adjusting of the magnitude of at least the portion of the base station signal comprises adjusting a magnitude of at least a portion of an uplink signal.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein the operations further comprise adjusting at least a portion of a downlink signal responsive to the adjusting of the magnitude of at least the portion of the uplink signal.

33. The system of claim 16, wherein the operations further comprise:

changing a resolution of the signal gain applied to at least the portion of the base station signal based on the time of day, a day of the week, a day of the month, a location, and network usage.

22. A machine-readable storage medium comprising executable instructions that, when executed by a processing system including a processor, facilitate performance of operations, the operations comprising:

obtaining a Signal to Interference plus Noise Ratio (SINR)measurement R)measurement for each sector of a plurality of sectors of a communication node of a plurality of communication nodes, wherein the communication node comprises a first base station and the plurality of communication nodes comprises a second base station;

averaging the SINR measurements for each sector of the plurality of sectors to obtain a first average SINR measurement;

determining whether the first average SINR measurement is below a SINR threshold that is temporally dependent;

determining a power level resolution according to a time of day;

changing an amplitude of at least a portion of a signal of the first base station according to the power level resolution, to increase the first average SINR measurement;

determining whether the changing of the amplitude of at least the portion of the signal has improved the first average SINR measurement;

in response to determining that the changing of the amplitude of at least the portion of the signal has not improved the first average SINR measurement, reversing the changing of the amplitude of the at least the portion of the signal;

determining a second average SINR measurement of a second base station, obtained prior to the changing of the amplitude of at least the portion of the base station signal of the first base station, wherein the second average SINR measurement of the second base station comprises an average over sectors of the second base station;

determining whether the changing of the amplitude of at least the portion of the signal has reduced a second average SINR measurement of the second base station; and

in response to determining that the changing of the amplitude of at least the portion of the signal has reduced the second average SINR measurement of the second base station below the SINR threshold, reversing the changing of the amplitude of the at least the portion of the signal.

23. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 22, wherein the signal comprises an uplink signal, a downlink signal or both an uplink and a downlink signal, and wherein the SINR measurements further comprise key performance indicators (KPIs), noise data, interference mitigation data, or a combination thereof, and wherein the noise data comprises thermal noise, in-band co-channel interference, adjacent band noise, interference from foreign systems, out-of-band noise, or any combination thereof.

24. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 23, wherein the uplink signal is at a first communication node and the downlink signal is at a second communication node.

25. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 22, wherein the SINR measurements obtained for the plurality of sectors of the communication node exclude measurements associated with control channels used by the communication node to communicate with other communication devices.

26. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 22, wherein the SINR measurements obtained for the plurality of sectors are for the plurality of communication nodes and comprise average SINR measurements for each sector, average SINR measurements for each path, average SINR measurements for each communication node, average SINR measurements for clusters of communication nodes, or any combination thereof.

27. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 22, wherein the SINR measurements obtained for the plurality of sectors of the communication node are associated with uplink communication channels or downlink communication channels used by the plurality of communication nodes, and wherein the operations further comprise directing the plurality of communication nodes to balance a SINR of the uplink communication channels in relation to a SINR of the downlink communication channels by obtaining uplink or downlink SINR parameters from the plurality of communication nodes, obtaining information associated with corrective actions initiated by the plurality of communication nodes, or any combination thereof.

28. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 22, wherein the SINR measurements are obtained over a common public radio interface (CPRI).

32. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 22, wherein reversing the changing of the amplitude of the at least the portion of the signal comprises reverting the amplitude of the at least the portion of the signal to an immediately previous power level.