RADIO COMMUNICATION SYSTEM, NEIGHBOR CELL LIST OPTIMIZING SYSTEM, BASE STATION, AND NEIGHBOR CELL LIST UPDATING METHOD

• US 20120225657A1
• Filed: 09/17/2010
• Published: 09/06/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 11/19/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NEC Corporation
• Original Assignee: NEC Corporation
• Inventors: Watanabe, Yoshinori, Hamabe, Kojiro
• Granted Patent: US 8,406,766 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/436
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/00 Supervisory, monitoring or testing arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/00835 Determination of neighbour cell lists
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/00837 Determination of triggering parameters for hand-off
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/0085 Hand-off measurements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/0088 Scheduling hand-off measurements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 60/00 Affiliation to network, e.g. registration; Terminating affiliation with the network, e.g. de-registration

Abstract

A neighbor cell list optimizing system according to the present invention is a neighbor cell list optimizing system that updates a neighbor cell list that is provided in a base station that manages a cell to which a mobile terminal establishes a connection and to which specific neighbor cells that are candidates of a handover destination cell for said mobile terminal of neighbor cells that are in the vicinity of said cell are registered, comprising: priority computation section that computes priorities of said neighbor cells to be registered to said neighbor cell list based on measurement information that represents radio communication qualities of neighbor cells in which the measured radio communication qualities exceed a threshold; and neighbor cell list updating section that registers neighbor cells in descending order of the priorities up to an upper limit of radio cells that can be registered to said neighbor cell list.

Claims

1. A radio communication system, comprising:

a mobile terminal;

a base station that manages a cell to which said mobile terminal establishes a connection and that is provided with a neighbor cell list to which specific neighbor cells, that are candidates of a handover destination cell for said mobile terminal; and

a neighbor cell list updating unit that updates the neighbor cell list provided in said base station,

wherein said mobile terminal measures radio communication qualities of neighbor cells that are in the vicinity of said cells and reports measurement information that represents radio communication qualities of the neighbor cells in which the measured radio communication qualities exceed a predetermined threshold to said base station, and

wherein said neighbor cell list updating unit includes;

a priority computation section that computes priorities of said neighbor cells to be registered to said neighbor cell list based on said measurement information reported to said base station; and

a neighbor cell list updating section that registers neighbor cells to said neighbor cell list in descending order of the neighbor cells'"'"' priorities that are computed by said priority computation section up to an upper limit of radio cells that can be registered to said neighbor cell list.

2. The radio communication system according to claim 1,

wherein said priority computation section counts the number of reports of measurement information of said neighbor cells in a predetermined counting period and computes priorities of the neighbor cells based on the counted number of reports.

3. The radio communication system according to claim 2,

wherein said priority computation section computes a weighted average value of the number of reports for said neighbor cells in an elapsed time after a tabulation period and computes the priorities of the neighbor cells based on the weighted average values.

4. The radio communication system according to claim 2,

wherein said priority computation section counts the number of reports only for a neighbor cell having the highest radio communication quality from among the plurality of neighbor cells when said mobile terminal reports measurement information of a plurality of neighbor cells at a time.

5. The radio communication system according to claim 2,

wherein said priority computation section computes the priorities of said neighbor cells and then corrects the priorities of the neighbor cells based on traffic statistic information of the neighbor cells.

6. The radio communication system according to claim 5,

wherein said traffic statistic information includes at least one from among the number of handover attempts to said neighbor cells and the number of handover successes.

7. The radio communication system according to claim 6,

wherein said priority computation section computes the priorities of said neighbor cells and then corrects the priorities of the neighbor cells based on the ratio of the number of handover attempts to the neighbor cells and the number of handover attempts to any one of all the neighbor cells or the ratio of the number of handover successes to the neighbor cells and the number of handover successes to any one of all the neighbor cells.

8. The radio communication system according to claim 2,

wherein said neighbor cell list updating unit further includes:

a design information storage section that stores coverage information that represents coverage that is a geographical range of each of said cell and neighbor cells, and

wherein said priority computation section computes the priorities of said neighbor cells and then corrects the priorities of the neighbor cells based on the coverage information of the neighbor cells.

9. The radio communication system according to claim 8,

wherein said priority computation section computes the priorities of said neighbor cells and then corrects the priorities of the neighbor cells based on an overlap area of the coverage of said cell and the coverage of the neighbor cells.

10. The radio communication system according to claim 1,

wherein the value of said threshold that said mobile terminal uses when it reports the measurement information of neighbor cells registered in said neighbor cell list is the same as the value of the threshold that said mobile terminal uses when it reports the measurement information of neighbor cells not registered in said neighbor cell list.

11. The radio communication system according to claim 1,

wherein the value of said threshold that said mobile terminal uses when it reports the measurement information of neighbor cells registered in said neighbor cell list is different from the value of the threshold that said mobile terminal uses when it reports the measurement information of neighbor cells not registered in said neighbor cell list.

12. The radio communication system according to claim 1, further comprising:

a neighbor base station that manages at least one of said neighbor cells and transmits a first pilot signal,

wherein said base station transmits a second pilot signal, and

wherein said mobile terminal measures at least received powers or signal-to-interference ratios of said first and second pilot signals.

13. The radio communication system according to claim 12,

wherein said mobile terminal measures at least a received power of said first pilot signal or a signal-to-interference ratio of said first pilot signal or a ratio of a received power of said second pilot signal and a received power of said first pilot signal or a ratio of a signal-to-interference ratio of said second pilot signal and a signal-to-interference ratio of said first signal as the radio communication qualities of said neighbor cells and reports said measurement information to said base station if the measured radio communication qualities exceed said threshold.

14. The radio communication system according to claim 1,

further comprising another said mobile terminal that respectively measures the radio communication quality of neighbor cells other than said specific neighbor cells.

15. The radio communication system according to claim 14,

wherein said neighbor cell list updating unit further comprises:

an information collection section that designates said mobile terminals as said first and second mobile terminals, and

wherein said information collection section designates part of mobile terminals that have been designated as said first mobile terminals as said second mobile terminals.

16. The radio communication system according to claim 15,

wherein said priority computation section computes the priorities of said neighbor cells and then corrects the priorities of the neighbor cells based on the ratio of the number of said first mobile terminals and the number of said second mobile terminals.

17. A neighbor cell list updating device that updates a neighbor cell list which includes specific neighbor cells that are candidates of a handover destination cell for a mobile terminal comprising:

a priority computation section that computes priorities of neighbor cells, which are in the vicinity of said cell, to be registered to said neighbor cell list based on measurement information that represents radio communication qualities of neighbor cells in which the measured radio communication qualities exceed a predetermined threshold; and

a neighbor cell list updating section that registers neighbor cells in descending order of the neighbor cells'"'"' priorities that are computed by said priority computation section up to an upper limit of radio cells that can be registered to said neighbor cell list and updates said neighbor cell list.

18. A base station that manages a cell and that updates a neighbor cell list which includes specific neighbor cells that are candidates of a handover destination cell for a mobile terminal, comprising:

a priority computation section that computes priorities of neighbor cells, which are in the vicinity of said cell, to be registered to said neighbor cell list based on measurement information that represents radio communication qualities of the neighbor cells in which the measured radio communication qualities exceed a predetermined threshold; and

a neighbor cell list updating section that registers neighbor cells to said neighbor cell list in descending the order of the neighbor cells'"'"' priorities that are computed by said priority computation section up to an upper limit of radio cells that can be registered to said neighbor cell list and updates said neighbor cell list.

19. A neighbor cell list updating method applied for a neighboring cell list updating device optimizing system that updates a neighbor cell list which includes specific neighbor cells that are candidates of a handover destination cell for a mobile terminal, comprising:

computing priorities of neighbor cells, which are in the vicinity of said cell, to be registered to said neighbor cell list based on measurement information that represents radio communication qualities of neighbor cells in which the measured radio communication qualities exceed a predetermined threshold; and

registering neighbor cells in descending order of the neighbor cells'"'"' priorities that are computed by said priority computation section up to an upper limit of radio cells that can be registered to said neighbor cell list and updating said neighbor cell list.