METHOD FOR ADAPTIVE FORMATION OF CELL CLUSTERS FOR CELLULAR WIRELESS NETWORKS WITH COORDINATED TRANSMISSION AND RECEPTION

• US 20090312027A1
• Filed: 06/17/2008
• Published: 12/17/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/17/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent SA (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent SA (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Valenzuela, Reinaldo, Foschini, G. J., Huang, Howard C., Venkatesan, Sivarama, Lozano, Angel
• Granted Patent: US 9,241,276 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/446
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/02 Resource partitioning among network components, e.g. reuse partitioning
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/02 Arrangements for optimising operational condition

Abstract

The present invention provides a method of forming clusters of cells in a wireless communication system. The method includes accessing information generated by measuring channel conditions for at least one mobile unit and a plurality of cells in the wireless communication system. The method also includes adding more than one of the plurality of cells to at least one cell cluster based on the accessed information and coordinating communication between the cells in each cell cluster and the mobile unit(s).

Claims

1. A method of forming clusters of cells in a wireless communication system, comprising:

accessing information generated by measuring a plurality of channel conditions for at least one mobile unit and a plurality of cells in the wireless communication system;

adding more than one of the plurality of cells to at least one cell cluster based on the accessed information; and

coordinating communication between the cells in said at least one cell cluster and said at least one mobile unit.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein accessing the information generated by measuring a plurality of channel conditions comprises accessing information indicating strengths of a plurality of signals received by said at least one mobile unit or the plurality of cells.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein accessing the information indicating the strengths of the plurality of signals comprises accessing a plurality of instantaneous signal strengths.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein accessing the information indicating the plurality of instantaneous signal strengths comprises accessing information indicating at least one of a distance-dependent path loss, shadow fading, or multicast fading between said at least one mobile unit and the plurality of cells.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein accessing the information indicating the plurality of strengths of the plurality of signals comprises accessing a plurality of local-average signal strengths.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein accessing the plurality of local-average signal strengths comprises accessing information indicating at least one of a distance-dependent path loss or shadow fading.

7. The method of claim 2, wherein accessing the information generated by measuring the plurality of channel conditions comprises measuring a level of interference at the plurality of cells.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein accessing the information generated by measuring the plurality of channel conditions comprises accessing a plurality of signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratios measured at the plurality of cells.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein adding more than one cell to said at least one cell cluster comprises adding a first cell to said at least one cell cluster, the first cell having a value of the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio that exceeds the values of the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratios of the other cells.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein adding more than one cell to said at least one cell cluster comprises adding at least one second cell to said at least one cell cluster, said at least one second cell having a value of the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio that exceeds a threshold value of the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the threshold is dependent on the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio of said first cell.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein coordinating communication comprises establishing at least one interface between the cells in said at least one cell cluster.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein coordinating communication comprises synchronizing operations of the cells in said at least one cell cluster using said at least one interface and a timing reference.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein accessing the information generated by measuring the plurality of channel conditions comprises accessing information generated by measuring a plurality of uplink channel conditions, and wherein adding the cells to said at least one cell cluster comprises adding the cells to an uplink cell cluster, and wherein coordinating communication comprises coordinating communication over the uplink.

15. The method of claim 14, comprising measuring the uplink channel conditions.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein accessing the information generated by measuring the plurality of channel conditions comprises accessing information generated by measuring a plurality of downlink channel conditions, and wherein adding the cells to said at least one cell cluster comprises adding the cells to an downlink cell cluster, and wherein coordinating communication comprises coordinating communication over the downlink.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein accessing the information generated by measuring the plurality of downlink channel conditions comprises receiving feedback from said at least one of mobile unit indicating the information generated by measuring the plurality of downlink channel conditions.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein accessing the information generated by measuring the plurality of downlink channel conditions comprises accessing information generated by measuring a plurality of uplink channel conditions in a time multiplexed system.