Cellular network resource control method and apparatus

• US 20070249340A1
• Filed: 04/11/2007
• Published: 10/25/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 10/20/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
• Original Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
• Inventors: Hagerman, Bo, Hiltunen, Kimmo
• Granted Patent: US 9,204,306 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/433
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/06 Hybrid resource partitioning, e.g. channel borrowing

Abstract

A cellular radio access network comprising a plurality of radio transceivers geographically spaced so that neighbouring transceivers provide overlapping radio coverage for mobile user terminals, and a radio transceiver controller geographically spaced from and coupled to said plurality of radio transceivers, the controller being arranged to control each radio transceiver so that neighbouring transceivers can be configured to communicate with user terminals using either the same or different radio channels, whereby the effective cell sizes of the radio access network can be dynamically increased or decreased depending upon the demands placed on the available radio resources.

Claims

1. A method of providing mobile user terminals with access to a cellular radio access network, the method comprising:

defining logical cells each comprising a set of sub-areas, each sub-area containing a radio transceiver for communicating with user terminals, and the sub-areas of a logical cell sharing one or more sets of downlink common control channels; and

for each logical cell, dynamically allocating one or more sub-areas to each user terminal within that logical cell, the sub-areas allocated to each user terminal transmitting and/or receiving the same dedicated information to/from the user terminal.

2. A method according to claim 1, wherein sub-areas are allocated to user terminals on the basis of received uplink signal strengths for terminals for sub-areas.

3. A method according to claim 1, wherein sub-areas are allocated to user terminals on the basis of the measured or estimated uplink quality.

4. A method according to claim 1, wherein sub-areas are allocated to user terminals on the basis of the measured or estimated uplink quality and said uplink quality is the Carrier-to-Interference Ratio per sub-area per user terminal.

5. A method according to claim 1, wherein said logical cells are dynamically configurable in terms of the sub-areas that they contain.

6. A method according to claim 1, wherein said radio access network is a CDMA network.

7. A method according to claim 6, and comprising identifying hot-spots within a given logical cell, and allocating the primary scrambling code to user terminals within the hotspots and secondary scrambling codes to terminals outside the hotspots.

8. A method according to claim 1, and comprising allocating sub-areas to a user terminal in dependence upon the speed of travel of the user terminal and/or radio propagation conditions.

9. A method according to claim 1, the step of dynamically allocating one or more sub-areas to each user terminal comprising allocating sub-areas to user terminals in dependence upon the service required by a user terminal.

10. A method according to claim 1, and comprising defining for a user terminal an active set of logical cells to which the user is connected, and said step of dynamically allocating one or more sub-areas to each user terminal comprising allocating sub-areas from the combined group of logical cells within the active set.

11. A method according to claim 1, said step of dynamically allocating one or more sub-areas to each user terminal comprising allocating different sets of sub-areas for the uplink and downlink directions.

12. A method according to claim 1, wherein said dedicated information is sent on one or more dedicated channels.

13. A radio transceiver controller comprising means for defining logical cells comprising a set of sub-areas, each sub-area containing a radio transceiver for communicating with user terminals, and the sub-areas of a logical cell sharing one or more sets of downlink common control channels and, for each logical cell, the means being further arranged to dynamically allocate one or more sub-areas to each user terminal within that logical cell, the sub-areas allocated to each user transmitting and/or receiving the same dedicated information to/from the user.

14. A method of providing mobile user terminals with access to a cellular radio access network, the method comprising:

defining logical cells each comprising a set of sub-areas, each sub-area containing a radio transceiver for communicating with user terminals, and the sub-areas of a logical cell sharing one or more sets of downlink common control channels; and

for each logical cell, dynamically allocating one or more sub-areas to each user terminal within that logical cell, the sub-areas allocated to each user terminal transmitting and/or receiving the different dedicated information to/from the user terminal.

15. A method according to claim 14, each sub-area allocated to a user terminal transmitting dedicated information to the user terminal over a different dedicated downlink channel.

16. A radio transceiver controller comprising means for defining logical cells comprising a set of sub-areas, each sub-area containing a radio transceiver for communicating with user terminals, and the sub-areas of a logical cell sharing one or more sets of downlink common control channels and, for each logical cell, the means being further arranged to dynamically allocate one or more sub-areas to each user terminal within that logical cell, the sub-areas allocated to each user transmitting and/or receiving the different dedicated information to/from the user.

17. A radio transceiver controller according to claim 16, said means being arranged to cause the allocated sub-areas to transmit different dedicated information to the user terminals over respective dedicated downlink channels.