Radio Resource Management In Multihop Relay Networks

• US 20080188231A1
• Filed: 07/31/2007
• Published: 08/07/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 08/18/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Original Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Inventors: Agre, Jonathan, Chen, Wei-Peng, Zhu, Chenxi
• Granted Patent: US 8,032,146 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/450
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/2606 Arrangements for base station coverage control, e.g. by using relays in tunnels
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/26 Cell enhancers or enhancement, e.g. for tunnels, building shadow
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/20 Negotiating bandwidth
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 56/00 Synchronisation arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/52 based on load
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/047 using dedicated repeater stations

Abstract

The embodiments balance wireless communication bandwidth capacity in a channel one or more cascading wireless communication links in a wireless communication cell, and manage the wireless communication bandwidth capacity in the channel across two or more virtual cells within the wireless communication cell.

Claims

1. A method, comprising.

balancing wireless communication bandwidth capacity in a single channel one or more cascading wireless communication links in a wireless communication cell;

and

managing the wireless communication bandwidth capacity in the single channel across two or more virtual cells within the wireless communication cell.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the cascading link is a wireless communication link among a first wireless node and one or more relay second nodes to one or more third nodes.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the cascading link comprises a composite link of a plurality of wireless communication access links between the relay second node and the third nodes.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the balancing of the wireless communication bandwidth capacity in the single channel cascading link comprises adjusting the bandwidth among the first node, the relay second nodes and/or the third nodes, based upon a transmission congestion level at the first node, the relay second nodes and/or the third nodes.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the congestion level is based upon average cascading transmission queue lengths over a time interval at the first node, the relay second nodes and/or the third nodes.

6. The method of claim 2,

wherein a communication link between the first node and the relay second node is a relay communication link and a communication link between the relay second node an a third node is an access link, and

the method further comprises determining the transmission congestion level in a downlink communication among the first node and the second relay node to the third nodes by periodically:

assigning a portion of the relay link bandwidth to the access link bandwidth, based upon a bandwidth adjuster, upon determining whether transmission queues of the first node and the relay second node are full, as a first bandwidth adjustment;

assigning a portion of the access link bandwidth to the relay link bandwidth, based upon the bandwidth adjuster, upon determining the transmission queue length of the first node is larger than the transmission queue length of the relay second node by a transmission queue size threshold or the first node transmission queue is full, as a second bandwidth adjustment; and

assigning a portion of the relay link bandwidth to the access link bandwidth, based upon the bandwidth adjuster, upon determining the transmission queue length of the relay second node is larger than the transmission queue length of the first node by the transmission queue size threshold or the relay second node transmission queue is full, as third bandwidth adjustment.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the bandwidth adjuster varies by any combination for the first, second, third bandwidth adjustments and is dynamically input according to one or more of real-time wireless communication network conditions, user, or application.

8. The method of claim 2,

wherein a communication link between the first node and the relay second node is a relay communication link and a communication link between the relay second node an a third node is an access link, and

the method further comprises determining the transmission congestion level in an uplink communication among the first node and the second relay node to the third nodes by periodically:

assigning a portion of the relay link bandwidth to the access link bandwidth, based upon a bandwidth adjuster, upon determining transmission queues of the second node and the relay second node are full, as a first bandwidth adjustment;

assigning a portion of the access link bandwidth to the relay link bandwidth, based upon the bandwidth adjuster, upon determining the transmission queue length of the relay second node is larger than the transmission queue length of the third node by a transmission queue size threshold or the relay second node transmission queue is full, as a second bandwidth adjustment; and

assigning a portion of the relay link bandwidth to the access link bandwidth, based upon the bandwidth adjuster, upon determining the transmission queue length of the third node is larger than the transmission queue length of the relay second node by the transmission queue size threshold or the third node transmission queue is full, as third bandwidth adjustment.

9. The method of claim 5, wherein the average transmission queue length is based upon a weight according to various types of data traffic including non-realtime data and/or real-time data types.

10. The method of claim 5, wherein a virtual cell comprises a service area of the second relay node and the one or more third nodes in the cell, and the managing of the bandwidth capacity in the single channel across the two or more virtual cells comprises:

computing average weighted transmission queue length for each user on a virtual cell basis in a communication link direction;

for the communication link direction, determining whether an average weighted queue length of each user in a first virtual cell is higher than an average weighted queue length of each user in a second virtual; and

assigning a portion of a total bandwidth in the communication link direction of the second virtual cell to the first virtual cell, according to the determining.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein a weight factor for the weighted transmission queue length is a number of relay second nodes, user service agreement, or average channel quality, or any combinations thereof in a virtual cell.

12. The method according to claim 1, wherein the wireless communication cell is a Mobile Multi-hop Relay-Based Cell (MMR-cell) according to IEEE 802.16j.

13. The method of claim 4, the relay second nodes and/or the third nodes transmit the transmission congestion level to the first node by control messages and the first node performs the balancing and/or managing of the wireless communication bandwidth capacity by transmitting wireless bandwidth capacity control messages to the relay second nodes and/or the third nodes.

14. An apparatus, comprising:

a controller

balancing wireless communication bandwidth capacity in a single channel one or more cascading wireless communication links in a wireless communication cell; and

managing the wireless communication bandwidth capacity in the single channel across two or more virtual cells within the wireless communication cell.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the controller wirelessly communicates as a first node and the cascading link is a wireless communication link among the first node and one or more relay second nodes to one or more third nodes.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the cascading link comprises a composite link of a plurality of wireless communication access links between the relay second node and the third nodes.

17. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the balancing of the wireless communication bandwidth capacity in the single channel cascading link comprises adjusting the bandwidth among the first node, the relay second nodes and/or the third nodes, based upon a transmission congestion level at the first node, the relay second nodes and/or the third nodes.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the congestion level is based upon average cascading transmission queue lengths over a time interval at the first node, the relay second nodes and/or the third nodes.

19. The apparatus of claim 15,

wherein a communication link between the first node and the relay second node is a relay communication link and a communication link between the relay second node an a third node is an access link, and

the controller further determines the transmission congestion level in a downlink communication among the first node and the second relay node to the third nodes by periodically:

assigning a portion of the relay link bandwidth to the access link bandwidth, based upon a bandwidth adjuster, upon determining whether transmission queues of the first node and the relay second node are full, as a first bandwidth adjustment;

assigning a portion of the access link bandwidth to the relay link bandwidth, based upon the bandwidth adjuster, upon determining the transmission queue length of the first node is larger than the transmission queue length of the relay second node by a transmission queue size threshold or the first node transmission queue is full, as a second bandwidth adjustment; and

assigning a portion of the relay link bandwidth to the access link bandwidth, based upon the bandwidth adjuster, upon determining the transmission queue length of the relay second node is larger than the transmission queue length of the first node by the transmission queue size threshold or the relay second node transmission queue is full, as third bandwidth adjustment.

20. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein the bandwidth adjuster varies by any combination for the first, second, third bandwidth adjustments and is dynamically input according to one or more of real-time wireless communication network conditions, user, or application.

21. The apparatus of claim 15,

wherein a communication link between the first node and the relay second node is a relay communication link and a communication link between the relay second node an a third node is an access link, and

the controller further determines the transmission congestion level in an uplink communication among the first node and the second relay node to the third nodes by periodically:

assigning a portion of the relay link bandwidth to the access link bandwidth, based upon a bandwidth adjuster, upon determining transmission queues of the second node and the relay second node are full, as a first bandwidth adjustment;

assigning a portion of the access link bandwidth to the relay link bandwidth, based upon the bandwidth adjuster, upon determining the transmission queue length of the relay second node is larger than the transmission queue length of the third node by a transmission queue size threshold or the relay second node transmission queue is full, as a second bandwidth adjustment; and

assigning a portion of the relay link bandwidth to the access link bandwidth, based upon the bandwidth adjuster, upon determining the transmission queue length of the third node is larger than the transmission queue length of the relay second node by the transmission queue size threshold or the third node transmission queue is full, as third bandwidth adjustment.

22. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the average transmission queue length is based upon a weight according to various types of data traffic including non-realtime data and/or realtime data types.

23. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein a virtual cell comprises a service area of the second relay node and the one or more third nodes in the cell, and the managing of the bandwidth capacity in the single channel across the two or more virtual cells comprises:

computing average weighted transmission queue length for each user on a virtual cell basis in a communication link direction;

for the communication link direction, determining whether an average weighted queue length of each user in a first virtual cell is higher than an average weighted queue length of each user in a second virtual; and

assigning a portion of a total bandwidth in the communication link direction of the second virtual cell to the first virtual cell, according to the determining.

24. The apparatus of claim 23, wherein a weight factor for the weighted transmission queue length is a number of relay second nodes, user service agreement, or average channel quality, or any combinations thereof in a virtual cell.

25. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the wireless communication cell is a Mobile Multi-hop Relay-Based Cell (MMR-cell) according to IEEE 802.16j.

26. The apparatus of claim 17, the relay second nodes and/or the third nodes transmit the transmission congestion level to the first node by control messages and the first node performs the balancing and/or managing of the wireless communication bandwidth capacity by transmitting wireless bandwidth capacity control messages to the relay second nodes and/or the third nodes.