CONTROL METHOD OF SINGLE-FREQUENCY NETWORK AND A CONTROL ENTITY OF A SINGLE-FREQUENCY NETWORK

• US 20110019589A1
• Filed: 10/10/2008
• Published: 01/27/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 10/29/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: China Mobile Communications Corporation (China Mobile Communications Group Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: China Mobile Communications Corporation (China Mobile Communications Group Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: Li, Zhenling, Shen, Xiaodong
• Granted Patent: US 8,498,225 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/255
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/022 Site diversity; Macro-diversity using two or more spaced independent antennas H04B7/04
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/42 Arrangements for resource management
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/67 Common-wave systems, i.e. using separate transmitters operating on substantially the same frequency
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/04 Traffic adaptive resource partitioning
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/02 Arrangements for optimising operational condition

Abstract

This invention discloses a control method of a single-frequency network and a control entity of a single-frequency network. The control method of the single-frequency network provided by this invention comprises: obtaining the service request information sent by a user terminal; changing the single-frequency network according to the service request information. The control entity of the single-frequency network provided by this invention comprises: an obtaining unit, used for obtaining the service request information sent by a user terminal; a controlling unit, used for changing the single-frequency network according to the service request information. This invention realizes the dynamic control of a single-frequency network by changing the single-frequency network according to the service request information sent by a user terminal. Consequently, the service provider can dynamically change a single-frequency network according to the requirement of users and implement the optimization configuration of wireless network resources.

Claims

1. A method for controlling a Single Frequency Network, comprising:

obtaining a service request sent by a User Equipment; and

modifying a Single Frequency Network according to the service request,

wherein modifying the Single Frequency Network according to the service request comprises;

performing control of the Single Frequency Network; and

sending signaling to a base station involved in the control of the Single Frequency Network.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein performing the control of the Single Frequency Network comprises at least one of:

adding or removing the Single Frequency Network according to the service request; and

adding the base station to the Single Frequency Network or removing the base station from the Single Frequency Network.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein adding the Single Frequency Network according to the service request comprises:

determining one or more base stations serving User Equipments requesting for one or more types of services; and

if one or more independent base stations not belonging to the Single Frequency Network are included in the one or more base stations, combining the independent base stations into a new Single Frequency Network, and providing, by the new Single Frequency Network, the one or more types of services;

or,

after determining one or more base stations serving the respective User Equipments requesting for one or more types of services, arranging the determined base stations in a decreasing order of the numbers of the User Equipments requesting for the one or more types of services that are served by the base stations, and selecting the first one or more base stations in the sequence of the base stations as one or more new base stations to be combined into the new Single Frequency Network; and

if the new base stations belong to an original Single Frequency Network, removing the new base stations from the original Single Frequency Network; and

providing the one or more types of services within the new Single Frequency Network.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein combining the base stations into the new Single Frequency Network comprises:

establishing a mapping relationship between the new Single Frequency Network and each of the base stations within the Single Frequency Network; and

sending signaling to each of the base stations within the new Single Frequency Network, with the signaling carrying a time stamp, an identifier of a Single Frequency Network controller controlling the Single Frequency Network, an identifier of the base station, an identifier of the Single Frequency Network including the base station, and identifiers of services provided in the Single Frequency Network including the base station.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein removing the Single Frequency Network according to the service request comprises:

if all the base stations of the Single Frequency Network do not provide any service requested by the User Equipment according to the statistics of the service request sent by the User Equipment, directly removing the Single Frequency Network;

or

when the statistics of the service request sent by the User Equipment shows that each service requested by the User Equipment served by each base station in a first Single Frequency Network has been provided by any other Single Frequency Network, depending on the service requested by the User Equipment served by the base station in the first Single Frequency Network, adding all or part of the base stations within the first Single Frequency Network, as new base stations, to the other Single Frequency Network providing the same service requested by the all or part of the base stations, and removing the first Single Frequency Network.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein directly removing the Single Frequency Network comprises:

removing a mapping relationship between the Single Frequency Network and each base station within the Single Frequency Network; and

sending removing signaling to each base station within the Single Frequency Network, to notify the base station that it does not belong to any Single Frequency Network.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein adding all or part of the base stations within the first Single Frequency Network to the other Single Frequency Network providing the same service as the new base stations and removing the first Single Frequency Network comprises:

adding the new base stations to the respective other Single Frequency Network providing the same service, and removing the mapping relationship between the first Single Frequency Network and each of the base stations within the first Single Frequency Network; and

sending signaling to each of the new base stations, with the signaling carrying a time stamp, an identifier of a Single Frequency Network controller controlling the Single Frequency Network, an identifier of the base station, an identifier of the Single Frequency Network including the base station, and identifiers of services provided in the Single Frequency Network including the base station.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein, in adding the new base stations to the other Single Frequency Network providing the same service, if there are more than one Single Frequency Network providing the same service, the new base stations are added to any one of the Single Frequency Networks providing the same service, or one of the Single Frequency Networks that is geographically adjacent to the new base stations, or one of the Single Frequency Networks that has the highest receiving quality, or one of the Single Frequency Networks that includes the most or least User Equipments requesting for the same service.

11. The method of claim 4, wherein adding the base station to the Single Frequency Network comprises:

determining one or more base stations serving User Equipments requesting for a first service, arranging the determined base stations in a decreasing order of the numbers of their served User Equipments; and

selecting and adding the first one or more base stations in the sequence of the base stations to a first Single Frequency Network providing the first service as new base stations, and removing the new base stations from the Single Frequency Network originally including the new base stations.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein if there are more than one Single Frequency Network providing the first service, the new base stations are added to any one of the Single Frequency Networks providing the first service, or one of the Single Frequency Networks that is geographically adjacent to the new base stations, or one of the Single Frequency Networks that has the highest receiving quality, or one of the Single Frequency Networks that includes the most or least User Equipments requesting for the same service.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein adding the new base stations to the first Single Frequency Network providing the first service comprises:

establishing a mapping relationship between the new base stations and the first Single Frequency Network; and

sending signaling to the new base stations, with the signaling carrying a time stamp, an identifier of a Single Frequency Network controller controlling the Single Frequency Network, an identifier of the base station, an identifier of the Single Frequency Network including the base station, and identifiers of services provided in the Single Frequency Network including the base station.

14. The method of claim 4, wherein removing the base station from the Single Frequency Network comprises:

if the statistics of the obtained information of services requested by the User Equipments indicates that there is one or more base stations to which no service request is initiated by the User Equipment in a second Single Frequency Network, or the number of the User Equipments initiating the service requests to the one or more base stations is lower than a preset threshold, or the product of the number of the User Equipments initiating the service requests to the one or more base stations and the occupied bandwidth is lower than a preset threshold, then removing the one or more base stations from the second Single Frequency Network as removing base stations.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein removing the one or more base stations from the second Single Frequency Network as removing base stations comprises:

removing the stored mapping relationship between the removing base stations and the second Single Frequency Network; and

sending removing signaling to the removing base stations to notify the base stations that they do not belong to any Single Frequency Network.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

changing the type of a service provided by the Single Frequency Network, wherein the type of a service requested by the User Equipment served by each of base stations within the Single Frequency Network is determined according to the obtained information of the service requested by the User Equipment; and

one or more types of services are introduced to the Single Frequency Network if those services are currently not in the list of services provided by the Single Frequency Network;

or, if current one or more types of services in the Single Frequency Network are not requested by the User Equipment, the one or more types of services without being requested by the User Equipment are removed from the Single Frequency Network.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein if an independent base station not belonging to any Single Frequency Network is present between two or more Single Frequency Networks geographically, the independent base station transmits the same service data at the same time and frequency resources as the geographically adjacent Single Frequency Network.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein obtaining the service request sent by the User Equipment comprises:

obtaining the service request sent by the User Equipment from a base station serving the User Equipment;

or

obtaining the service request sent by the User Equipment from a core network after the service request is transmitted transparently through the base station to the core network;

or

obtaining the service request sent by the User Equipment from a MBMS Coordinating Entity.

2. (canceled)

3. (canceled)

19. A Single Frequency Network controller comprising;

an obtaining unit configured to obtain a service request sent by a User Equipment; and

a control unit configured to change a Single Frequency Network according to the service request.

20. The Single Frequency Network controller of claim 19, further comprising:

a storage unit configured to store a mapping relationship between the Single Frequency Network and each of base stations within the Single Frequency Network.

21. The Single Frequency Network controller of claim 20, wherein the control unit comprises a first control sub-unit, a second control sub-unit, a base station adding sub-unit and a base station removing sub-unit,

the first control sub-unit is configured to determine the base station to be included in a new Single Frequency Network and the base station to be added to an existing Single Frequency Network, and notify the base station adding sub-unit of the determined base station;

the second control sub-unit is configured to determine the base station to be removed from the Single Frequency Network and notify the base station removing sub-unit of the determined base station, and determine any base station within the Single Frequency Network to be removed that needs to be incorporated into any other Single Frequency Network, and notify the base station adding sub-unit of the determined base station;

the base station adding sub-unit is configured to add a base station to a Single Frequency Network to which the base station needs to be added; and

the base station removing sub-unit is configured to remove a base station from the Single Frequency Network including the base station.

22. The Single Frequency Network controller of claim 21, wherein the control unit further comprises a third control sub-unit configured to change the type of the service provided by the Single Frequency Network.