SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR DYNAMICALLY BALANCING A MAXIMUM NUMBER OF ACTIVE REMOTE DEVICE USERS BETWEEN BASE STATIONS

• US 20120176902A1
• Filed: 01/06/2011
• Published: 07/12/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 01/06/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Clearwire Ip Holdings LLC (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Original Assignee: Clear Wireless LLC (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Inventors: Dinan, Esmael, Jung, Jong-Hak, Tiwari, Swati, Pawar, Hemanth, Sitaram, Krishna
• Granted Patent: US 8,576,719 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/237
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0882 Utilisation of link capacity
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/22 for handling the traffic

Abstract

Both a system and method are provided for dynamically balancing a maximum number of active remote device users that can be serviced between first and second base stations transmitting data frames in a radio communication system when the carriers of the first and second base stations operate at different radio frequency bandwidths X and Y respectively, and Y is substantially larger than X. The system includes a system control circuit that controls the number of subchannels in the uplink control channel region of the data frames transmitted by the first base station, and a traffic monitoring circuit that monitors both an uplink load and a number of active wireless device users within broadcast coverage of said first base station. The system control circuit dynamically increases the radio resources in the uplink control channel region of the frames transmitted by the first base station.

Claims

1. A system for dynamically balancing a maximum number of active remote device users that can be serviced between first and second base stations transmitting data frames via carriers in a radio communication system, wherein the carriers of the first and second base stations operate at different radio frequency bandwidths X and Y respectively, wherein Y is substantially larger than X, comprising:

a system control circuit that controls an amount of radio resources in an uplink control channel region of the data frames transmitted by the first base station, and

a traffic monitoring circuit that monitors a number of active wireless device users within broadcast coverage of said first base station,

wherein the system control circuit increases the amount of radio resources in the uplink control channel region of the frames transmitted by said first base station to increase the number of users that said first base station can support to equal or at least approach a maximum number of users the second base station can support when the number of active wireless device users of the first base station exceeds a first preselected number.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the traffic monitoring circuit also monitors an uplink load for said first base station, and the system control circuit increases the amount of radio resources in the uplink control channel region of the frames transmitted by the first base station when the number of active wireless device users exceeds said first preselected number and said uplink load is below a first preselected threshold indicative of a low load condition.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the system control circuit refrains from increasing the amount of radio resources in the uplink control channel region of the frames transmitted by the first base station when the number of active wireless device users exceeds said first preselected number and said uplink load is above a second preselected threshold indicative of a high load condition.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the system control circuit increases the amount of radio resources in the uplink control channel region of the frames transmitted by the first base station when the uplink load is between said first and second thresholds, the number of active wireless device users exceeds said first preselected number, and a number of uplink bursts transmitted for the lowest modulation control scheme divided by the total number of bursts is less than a preselected percentage, but refrains from increasing the amount of radio resources in the uplink control channel region when said number of uplink bursts transmitted for the lowest modulation control scheme divided by the total number of bursts is equal to or greater than said preselected percentage.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the system control circuit decreases the amount of radio resources in the uplink control channel region of the frames transmitted by said first base station when the number of active wireless device users falls below a second preselected number that is lower than said first preselected number.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein said first preselected number is between about 75-85% of the maximum number of users that can be supported by the first base station before the amount of radio resources in the uplink control channel region of the frames is increased.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein said second preselected number is between about 60-75% of the maximum number of users that can be supported by the first base station before the amount of radio resources in the uplink control channel region of the frames is increased.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein frequency bandwidth Y is at least about 50% greater than frequency bandwidth X.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the coverage of the first base station and the coverage of the second base station geographically overlap.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein said radio communication system is one of a WiMAX and an LTE system.

11. A method for dynamically balancing a maximum number of active remote device users between first and second base stations in a radio communication system having broadcast coverage via carriers operating at radio frequency bandwidths X and Y respectively, wherein Y is substantially larger than X, and wherein the carriers of the first and second base stations transmit data frames, each of which includes an uplink control channel region and an uplink channel region, comprising:

monitoring a number of active wireless device users within the broadcast coverage of said first base station, and

increasing an amount of radio resources in the uplink control channel region of the frames transmitted by said first base station to increase the number of users that said first base station can support to equal or at least approach a maximum number of users the second base station can support when the number of active wireless device users of the first base station exceeds a first preselected number.

12. The method of claim 11, further including the steps of monitoring an uplink load for said first base station operating at frequency bandwidth X, and increasing t the amount of radio resources in the uplink control channel region of the frames transmitted by the first base station when the number of active wireless device users exceeds said first preselected number and said uplink load is below a first preselected threshold indicative of a low load condition.

13. The method of claim 12, further including the step of refraining from increasing the amount of radio resources in the uplink control channel region of the frames transmitted by the first base station when the number of active wireless device users exceeds said first preselected number and said uplink load is above a second preselected threshold indicative of a high load condition.

14. The method of claim 13, further including the step of increasing the amount of radio resources in the uplink control channel region of the frames transmitted by the first base station when the uplink load is between said first and second thresholds only when the number of uplink bursts transmitted for the lowest modulation control scheme divided by the total number of bursts is less than a preselected percentage and the number of active wireless device users exceeds said first preselected number.

15. The method of claim 11, further including the step of decreasing the amount of radio resources in the uplink control channel region of the frames transmitted by said first base station when the number of active wireless device users falls below a second preselected number that is lower than said first preselected number.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein said first preselected number is between about 75-85% of the maximum number of users that can be supported by the first base station before the uplink control channel region of the frames is increased.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein said second preselected number is between about 60-75% of the maximum number of users that can be supported by the first base station before the amount of radio resources in the uplink control channel region of the frames is increased.

18. A method for dynamically balancing a maximum number of active remote device users between first and second base stations in a radio communication system having broadcast coverage via carriers operating at radio frequency bandwidths X and Y respectively, wherein Y is substantially larger than X, and wherein the first and second base station carriers transmit data frames, each of which includes an uplink control channel region and an uplink channel region, comprising:

monitoring both an uplink load and a number of active wireless device users within the broadcast coverage of said first base station, and

increasing a number of subchannels in the uplink control channel region of the frames transmitted by said first base station to increase the number of users that said first base station can support to equal or at least approach a maximum number of users the second base station can support when the number of active wireless device users of said first base station exceeds a first preselected number and said monitored uplink load is below a first preselected threshold.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein said radio communication system is a WiMAX system, and wherein a number of symbols per frame for the uplink control channel increases when the uplink control channel region of the frames is increased.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein said radio communication system is an LTE system, and wherein a number of resource blocks (RB) per physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) increases when the uplink control channel region of the frames is increased.