SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ASSIGNING COMMUNICATION CELLS TO SERVERS IN A CELLULAR COMMUNICATION SYSTEM

• US 20090275341A1
• Filed: 04/28/2009
• Published: 11/05/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 05/02/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Eagle Technology, LLC (L3Harris Technologies, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Pine Valley Investments, LLC (L3Harris Technologies, Inc.)
• Inventors: Hengeveld, Thomas A., Monnes, Peter
• Granted Patent: US 8,761,786 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/452.100
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1021 based on client or server locations
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/08 User group management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/186 Processing of subscriber group data

Abstract

A system and method for assigning communication cells to servers in a cellular communication system. The method includes determining an affinity between a communication cell and a plurality of servers and assigning the communication cell to one of the plurality of servers based on the determined affinity.

Claims

1. A method for assigning communication cells to servers in a communication network, the method comprising:

determining an affinity between a communication cell and a plurality of servers; and

assigning the communication cell to one of the plurality of servers based on the determined affinity.

2. A method in accordance with claim 1 wherein the affinity comprises at least one of a geographic affinity and a group affinity.

3. A method in accordance with claim 2 wherein the geographic affinity is based on a geographic proximity of users within each of a plurality of communication cells.

4. A method in accordance with claim 2 wherein the group affinity is based on one or more communication groups to which users within the communication cell are members.

5. A method in accordance with claim 1 wherein the affinity comprises a combination of geographic affinity and group affinity.

6. A method in accordance with claim 5 further comprising weighting each of a geographic affinity value and a group affinity value to determine a combined affinity.

7. A method in accordance with claim 1 wherein the assigning comprises assigning the communication cell to one of the plurality of servers with a highest affinity.

8. A method in accordance with claim 1 wherein the assigning further comprises assigning the communication cell to one of the plurality of servers based on a communication traffic level of the server.

9. A method in accordance with claim 8 wherein the communication traffic level is based on a number of users in the communication cell.

10. A method in accordance with claim 8 wherein the communication traffic level is based on a number of call legs in the communication cell.

11. A method in accordance with claim 1 further comprising reassigning the communication cell to one of the plurality of servers based on a communication traffic level of the plurality of servers.

12. A method in accordance with claim 11 wherein the reassigning comprises determining a communication cell having a lowest affinity with a server and reassigning the communication cell with the lowest affinity.

13. A method in accordance with claim 11 wherein the reassigning comprises assigning the communication cell to a non-busy server of the plurality of servers having a highest affinity.

14. A method in accordance with claim 11 wherein the reassigning comprises assigning the cell to another one of the plurality of servers if the cell has no active calls.

15. A method in accordance with claim 1 wherein the communication cell initially includes no registered users and wherein the assigning is performed upon a user registering within the communication cell.

16. A method in accordance with claim 1 wherein determining the affinity comprises calculating a number of related user links and the assigning is based on the calculated number of related user links, wherein the user links comprise links between users within a same user group.

17. A method in accordance with claim 16 further comprising weighting the calculated number of user links, wherein the weighting is based on at least one of historical data, recent call information, group connection information and inter-cell proximity.

18. A method for assigning communication cells to voice traffic servers in a communication network, the method comprising:

determining a geographic affinity between one or more communication cells and a plurality of voice traffic servers in the communication network based on a geographic location of a plurality of users within the one or more communication cells; and

assigning communication cells to voice traffic servers based on the determined geographic affinity of each of the one or more communication cells to each of the voice traffic servers.

19. A method for assigning communication cells to voice traffic servers in a communication network, the method comprising:

determining a group affinity between users in one or more communication cells and a plurality of voice traffic servers in the communication network based on group registration of user equipment of the plurality of users within the one or more communication cells; and

assigning communication cells to voice traffic servers based on the determined group affinity of the plurality of users in each of the one or more communication cells to each of the voice traffic servers.

20. A method in accordance with claim 19 wherein determining the group affinity further comprises determining a commonality of group registrations of user equipment of the plurality of users in different ones of the communication cells.

21. A wireless communication system comprising:

a plurality of communication cells;

a plurality of voice traffic servers; and

an assignment server configured to assign one or more communication cells of the plurality of communication cells to at least one of the plurality of voice servers based on a determined affinity of the communication cells to the plurality of voice servers.