Method and Arrangement in a Telecommunication System

• US 20100091667A1
• Filed: 09/27/2007
• Published: 04/15/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 10/03/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
• Original Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
• Inventors: Kuningas, Tarmo, Kazmi, Muhammad
• Granted Patent: US 9,438,521 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/252
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/028 by filtering
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0829 Packet loss
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/16 Threshold monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/115 using a dedicated packet
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/35 by embedding flow control information in regular packets, e.g. piggybacking
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/08 Testing, supervising or monitoring using real traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/10 Scheduling measurement reports ; Arrangements for measurement reports
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/02 Traffic management, e.g. flow control or congestion control
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/0247 based on conditions of the access network or the infrastructure network central resource management H04W28/16
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/0252 per individual bearer or channel dynamic wireless traffic scheduling H04W72/12
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/0284 detecting congestion or overload during communication monitoring arrangements H04L43/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/0289 Congestion control load shedding arrangements in network planning H04W16/08; performing reselection for handling the traffic H04W36/22; wireless traffic scheduling H04W72/12
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/12 using signalling between network elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/04 Registration at HLR or HSS [Home Subscriber Server]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/16 Gateway arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 92/045 between access point and backbone network device
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 92/12 between access points and access point controllers

Abstract

The present invention relates to resource management in a telecommunication system. In particular the invention relates to detection and estimation of transport network load and optimization of transport network resources. According to the method and arrangement of the invention a serving node engaged in admission control identifies a transport network interface from which transport load measurements are required for the admission control, and a target radio network node related to the identified transport network interface. The serving radio network node configure the target radio network node to perform and report measurements on the transport network interface.

Claims

1-25. -25. (canceled)

26. A method, performed in a radio network node, for detecting the load on transport network interfaces at admission control, wherein the radio network node is part of a transport network functioning as a serving radio network node, and is responsible for performing admission control, the method comprising:

the serving radio network node identifying a transport network interface from which transport load measurements are required for admission control, and a target radio network node associated with the identified transport network interface;

the serving radio network node requesting the target radio network node to perform transport load measurements on the identified transport network interface, the request specifying measurement parameters and reporting conditions for the target radio network node;

the serving radio network node receiving the measurement results from the target radio network node when the reporting conditions are fulfilled; and

the serving radio network node basing the admission control at least partly on the received measurement results.

27. The method of claim 26 wherein a transport network load is expressed in terms of packet loss rate.

28. The method of claim 27 wherein one or more missing sequence numbers of transmitted packets are used to measure the packet loss rate.

29. The method of claim 28 wherein the transport network utilizes a plurality of transport network bearer services, and wherein the transport network load is separately measured for each transport network bearer service.

30. The method of claim 27 wherein the transport network utilizes a plurality of transport network bearer services, and wherein the transport network load is separately measured for each group of transport network bearer services having similar characteristics.

31. The method of claim 30 wherein the similar characteristics comprise quality of service requirements.

32. The method of claim 27 wherein the transport network load is measured as an aggregation of all the transport network bearer services.

33. The method of claim 26 wherein the request sent by the serving radio network node specifies one or more of the following measurement parameters:

basic measurement interval, measurement filtering, reporting condition, transport bearer, and flow type.

34. The method of claim 33 wherein the measurement parameters and reporting conditions are default values that are pre-configured in the transport network.

35. The method of claim 33 further comprising determining, at the serving radio network node, the measurement parameters and reporting conditions.

36. The method of claim 33 wherein the request sent by the serving radio network node specifies measurement filtering parameters comprising one or more of a number of successive measurement intervals, a minimum number of packets to be measured in each interval, and whether filtering averaging is linear or non-linear.

37. The method of claim 33 wherein the request sent by the serving radio network node specifies reporting condition parameters comprising one or more of a number of measurement intervals M, and a minimum number of packets M in an interval and a packet loss rate threshold γ

, which specifies a level for which measurements should be reported.

38. The method of claim 33 wherein a flow type, comprised of a transport bearer service, a group of transport bearers, or an aggregated flow for which the measurement is performed, is specified.

39. The method of claim 26 wherein the serving radio network node is a base station, and the target radio network node is an access gateway in an Evolved Universal Mobile Telecommunication Communication System Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN), and wherein requesting the target radio network node to perform transport load measurements on the identified transport network interface comprises the base station requesting the access gateway to measure the uplink transport network load on the interface between the base station and the access gateway, and report to the base station.

40. The method of claim 26 wherein the serving radio network node is an access gateway in an Evolved Universal Mobile Telecommunication Communication System Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN), and the target radio network node is a base station, and wherein requesting the target radio network node to perform transport load measurements on the identified transport network interface comprises requesting the base station to measure the downlink transport network load on the interface between the base station and the access gateway, and report to the access gateway.

41. The method of claim 26 wherein the serving radio network node is a serving base station and said target radio network node is a second base station, and wherein requesting the target radio network node to perform transport load measurements on the identified transport network interface comprises the serving base station requesting the second base station to measure the transport network load on the interface between the base stations, and to report to the serving base station.

42. The method of claim 26 wherein the serving radio network node is one of an MBMS access gateway and an MBMS server in an Evolved Universal Mobile Telecommunication Communication System Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN), and the target radio network node is a base station, and wherein requesting the target radio network node to perform transport load measurements on the identified transport network interface comprises the one of the MBMS access gateway and the MBMS server requesting the base station to measure the downlink transport network load on the interface between base station and the one of the MBMS access gateway and the MBMS server, and to report to the one of the MBMS access gateway and the MBMS serve.

43. The method of claim 26 wherein the serving radio network node is a base station and the target radio network node is one of an MBMS access gateway and an MBMS server in an Evolved Universal Mobile Telecommunication Communication System Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN), and wherein requesting the target radio network node to perform transport load measurements on the identified transport network interface comprises the base station requesting the one of the MBMS access gateway and the MBMS server to measure the uplink transport network load on the interface between the base station and the one of the MBMS access gateway and the MBMS server, and to report to the base station.

44. The method of claim 26 wherein the serving radio network node is a radio network controller (RNC) in an Universal Mobile Telecommunication Communication System Terrestrial Radio Access Network (UTRAN), and the target radio node is a base station, and wherein requesting the target radio network node to perform transport load measurements on the identified transport network interface comprises the RNC requesting the base station to measure the downlink transport network load on the interface between the base station and the RNC, and to report to the RNC.

45. The method of claim 26 wherein the serving radio network node is a base station controller in one of a Global System for Communications (GSM) network and a GSM Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution Radio Access Network (GERAN) and the target radio network node is a base station, and wherein requesting the target radio network node to perform transport load measurements on the identified transport network interface comprises base station controller requesting the base station to measure the downlink transport network load on the interface between the base station and the base station controller, and to report to the base station controller.

46. The method of claim 26 wherein requesting the target radio network node to perform transport load measurements on the identified transport network interface comprises the serving radio network node requesting the target radio network node to report the transport network load measurement via a control plane over a channel that carries control information.

47. The method of claim 26 wherein requesting the target radio network node to perform transport load measurements on the identified transport network interface comprises the serving radio network node requesting the target radio network node to report the transport network load measurement piggy-backed with user data via a user plane over a channel that carries user data.

48. The method of claim 26 wherein the reporting condition comprises a threshold above which measurements should be reported whereby the reporting of the measurements is event-triggered.

49. The method of claim 26 further comprising the serving radio network node storing long-term network transport load data that is used to identify a mismatch between loads on the air interface and the transport network interface.

50. A radio network node configured to function as a serving node in a radio communication network, and comprising:

an admission control module configured to perform at least part of the radio resource management functionality required in the communication network;

an interface and node identification module configured to identify an interface and a node associated with the interface that are relevant for an admission control;

a measurement configuration request generation module configured to form a measurement configuration request to be transferred to the node identified by the interface and node identification module; and

a receiving module configured to receive measurement reports from a node that has been requested to perform and report measurements and to provide the reported measurements to the admission control module.

51. The radio network node of claim 50 further comprising:

a measurement configuration receiving module configured to receive and execute a measurement configuration request; and

a report generating module configured to produce a measurement report according to a received measurement configuration request.