Intelligent control of radio resources in a wireless network

• US 20040043764A1
• Filed: 03/21/2003
• Published: 03/04/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 04/12/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Queen Mary And Westfield College
• Original Assignee: Queen Mary And Westfield College
• Inventors: Parini, Clive, Bigham, John, Cuthbert, Laurie
• Granted Patent: US 7,570,956 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/422.1
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 1/246 specially adapted for base stations
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 25/002 providing at least two patterns of different beamwidth; Variable beamwidth antennas
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/06 Hybrid resource partitioning, e.g. channel borrowing
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/28 using beam steering

Abstract

A method of controlling radio resources in a cellular wireless network comprising a plurality of fixed antennas providing overlapping radio coverage, the method comprising dynamically adjusting the radiation patterns of the antennas using co-ordinated distributed control to optimise capacity. The wireless network may be a cellular mobile network or part thereof comprising a plurality of cells, each cell having a base station comprising an antenna, and the method may then further comprise determining the concentration of mobile stations in each cell and changing the radiation/reception pattern of the antennas of some or all of the base stations in response to the concentration of mobile stations in each cell.

Claims

1. A method of controlling radio resources in a cellular wireless network comprising a plurality of fixed antennas providing overlapping radio coverage, the method comprising dynamically adjusting the shape of the radiation patterns of the antennas using distributed co-operative control.

2. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the wireless network is a cellular mobile network or part thereof comprising a plurality of cells, each cell having a base station comprising an antenna, the method comprising determining the concentration of mobile stations in each cell and changing the radiation pattern shape (in both transmit and receive) of the antennas of some or all of the base stations in a co-ordinated way in response to the concentration of mobile stations in each cell.

3. A method as claimed in claim 1 or 2, wherein the radiation patterns of the antennas are adjusted in response to negotiations between base stations.

4. A method as claimed in claim 1, 2 or 3, further comprising using agent technology to provide a negotiation process and the distributed co-operative control to co-ordinate the radiation patterns of the antennas.

5. A method as claimed in claim 1, 2, 3 or 4, wherein agent technology is used to control the antennas to dynamically optimise the radio coverage of each fixed antenna forming the network to maximise the capacity of the network.

6. A method as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein agent technology is used to control channel assignment and handovers between cells.

7. A method as claimed in claim 4, 5 or 6, wherein the agent technology uses negotiating agents comprising a control unit, the control unit comprising a reactive layer for managing radio coverage within a cell and a local planning layer for optimising radio coverage within one or more cells in response to local changes which can be predicted in advance or are unexpected.

8. A method as claimed in claim 7, wherein the local planning layer uses genetic algorithms to construct coherent plans for optimising the radio coverage.

9. A method as claimed in claim 7 or 8, wherein the control unit further comprises a co-operative layer for negotiation with other agents over a wider region of the radio network.

10. A method as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the determination of radiation pattern shapes includes an input based on the predicted traffic demand within a group of cells.

11. A method as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the wireless network is a wireless local loop network.

12. A method of controlling radio resources in a cellular wireless network comprising a plurality of fixed antennas providing overlapping radio coverage, the method comprising using artificial intelligence techniques to control the shape of the radiation patterns of the antennas.

13. A method of controlling a cellular wireless network comprising base stations, each base station comprising an antenna having a dynamically variable radiation pattern shape, the method comprising co-ordinating the radiation pattern shapes of the antennas using distributed co-operative control.

14. A method of optimising the allocation of radio resources in a mobile telephone network, comprising tracking changes in demand by mobile subscribers and co-ordinating the radiation pattern shapes of smart antennas at base stations in the network using distributed co-operative control.

15. A method of co-ordinating the radiation pattern shapes of smart antennas within a wireless network, comprising using hybrid agent architecture to support negotiation between base stations within the network.

16. A wireless network comprising base stations having smart antennas, wherein the radiation pattern shapes of the smart antennas are dynamically adaptable under distributed co-operative control to satisfy variations in traffic demand within a whole wireless network or sub network whilst maintaining full mobile coverage within the said network.