Reducing Energy Consumption in Mobile Telecommunications

• US 20110194429A1
• Filed: 11/10/2010
• Published: 08/11/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 11/11/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Vodafone Group PLC
• Original Assignee: Vodafone Group PLC
• Inventors: MCWILLIAMS, Brendan, Le Pezennec, Yannick, Dominguez Romero, Francisco Javier
• Granted Patent: US 8,780,742 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/252
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0206 in access points, e.g. base stations access point devices per se H04W88/08
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0232 according to average transmission signal activity
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

Method and network element for reducing energy consumption in WCDMA cells of a mobile network, the method comprising: monitoring traffic conveyed in the traffic channels of a cell; analyzing certain predetermined parameters in the monitored traffic; determining whether said predetermined parameters meet corresponding predetermined conditions; and when said predetermined conditions are met, switching off continuous transmission of common channels and facilitating the intermittent transmission of the common channels during one or more transmission events, thereby causing the cell to enter a cell standby mode.

Claims

1. Method for reducing energy consumption in WCDMA cells of a mobile network, the method including:

monitoring traffic conveyed in the traffic channels of a cell;

analyzing certain predetermined parameters in the monitored traffic;

determining whether said predetermined parameters meet corresponding predetermined conditions; and

when said predetermined conditions are met, switching off continuous transmission of common channels and facilitating the intermittent transmission of the common channels during one or more transmission events, thereby causing the cell to enter a cell standby mode.

2. Method according to claim 1, wherein the intermittent transmission is periodic having a characteristic period P_KA.

3. Method according to claim 1, wherein the or each transmission event has a characteristic duration T_KA and said characteristic duration is substantially shorter than the characteristic period P_KA.

4. Method according to claim 1, wherein the predetermined conditions are met when no data is carried in the traffic channels of the cell during a determined trigger time T_TR.

5. Method according to claim 1, wherein the predetermined conditions are analyzed by the RNC of the Node B in charge of the cell, and wherein the predetermined parameters are parameters of the traffic monitored in the cells of that RNC.

6. Method according to claim 5, wherein the predetermined parameters include at least one of the following:

connection setup requests;

release requests;

UL and DL data traffic volume.

7. Method according to claim 1, further comprising whenever a paging request is received by a cell in standby mode, resuming the normal mode of operation of said cell.

8. Method according to claim 1, further comprising whenever a valid connection request is received by a cell in standby mode, resuming the normal mode of operation of said cell.

9. Method according to claim 1, further comprising whenever a mobile terminal with a Cell_DCH connection is performing a handover to a neighbouring target cell in standby mode, resuming the normal mode of operation of said target cell.

10. Method according to claim 1, further comprising whenever a mobile terminal with a Cell_DCH connection signals a measurement report of a cell in stand-by mode, resuming the normal mode of operation of said cell.

11. Method according to claim 1, wherein when transmitting the common channels during a transmission time T_KA, the CPICH and SCH transmissions are started before the transmission of BCH data on the P-CCPCH

12. Method according to claim 1, comprising informing the mobile terminals in idle mode camped in a cell as well as the mobile terminals in idle or connected mode located in neighbouring cells that the cell has cell standby mode capabilities enabled.

13. Network element for reducing energy consumption in WCDMA cells of a mobile network, the element including:

a monitoring controller configured for monitoring traffic conveyed in the traffic channels of a cell;

a control unit operable to;

analyze certain predetermined parameters in the monitored traffic;

determine whether said predetermined parameters meet corresponding predetermined conditions;

when said predetermined conditions are met, switch off continuous transmission of common channels and facilitate the intermittent transmission of the common channels during one or more transmission events, thereby causing the cell to enter a cell standby mode.

14. Network element according to claim 13, wherein the determined conditions are met when no data is carried in the traffic channels of the cell during a determined trigger time T_TR.

15. Network element according to claim 13, the control unit further configured for whenever a paging request is received by a cell in standby mode, resuming the normal mode of operation of said cell.