CONCEPT FOR LOAD BALANCING IN A RADIO ACCESS NETWORK

• US 20140029431A1
• Filed: 01/25/2012
• Published: 01/30/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 04/12/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent SA (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent SA (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Rehm, Werner, Haberland, Bernd
• Granted Patent: US 10,595,260 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/235
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 1/14 Balancing the load in a network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1001 for accessing one among a plurality of replicated servers
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/04 based on wireless node resources
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/265 taking into account the quality of service QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/27 Transitions between radio resource control [RRC] states
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/08 Access point devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 92/20 between access points

Abstract

A concept for balancing a load in a mobile communication network, comprising receiving 130 receive data from a radio transceiver using a first interface and determining 140 a first receive data packet and a second receive data packet from the receive data, the first receive data packet and the second receive data packet being associated to different services. The concept comprises forwarding 150 the first receive data packet to a first processing unit using a second interface, and forwarding the second receive data packet to a second processing unit using the second interface.

Claims

1. An apparatus for balancing a load in a mobile communication network, comprising:

a first interface for communicating with a radio transceiver;

a second interface for communicating with a first processing unit and for communicating with a second processing unit;

means for receiving a baseband receive signal from the radio transceiver using the first interface;

means for determining a first receive data packet and a second receive data packet from the baseband receive signal, the first receive data packet and the second receive data packet being associated to different services; and

means for forwarding the first receive data packet to the first processing unit using the second interface, and for forwarding the second receive data packet to the second processing unit using the second interface, wherein the radio transceiver corresponds to a remote radio head of the mobile communication network.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

means for receiving a first transmit data packet from the first processing unit using the second interface,

means for receiving a second transmit data packet from the second processing unit using the second interface, the first transmit data packet and the second transmit data packet being associated to different services,

means for composing a baseband transmit signal based on the first transmit data packet and based on the second transmit data packet; and

means for forwarding the baseband transmit signal to the radio transceiver using the first interface.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the means for determining is adapted for demultiplexing the first and the second receive data packet from the received data.

4. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the means for composing is adapted for composing the baseband transmit signal by multiplexing the first transmit data packet and the second transmit data packet, the first transmit data packet and the second transmit data packet being associated to different services provided by the mobile communication network in a coverage area of the radio transceiver.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the radio transceiver corresponds to a transceiver for a GSM- (Global System for Mobile communication), an EDGE (Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution), a UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunication System), an LTE- (Long Term Evolution), or an LTE-A- (LTE-Advanced) mobile communication system.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first interface corresponds to a common public radio interface (CPRI) and/or the first processing unit and the second processing unit corresponds to baseband units of a mobile communication system, a baseband unit being a processing unit for processing baseband signals of radio signals to be transmitted or having been received in a transmission-band.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first interface is adapted for exchanging complex valued digital baseband data with the radio transceiver and wherein the second interface is adapted for exchanging complex valued digital baseband data with the first and the second processing unit and/or wherein the apparatus further comprises a third interface for communicating with another apparatus for exchanging control information.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first and the second receive or transmit data packets refer to different radio bearers, a radio bearer being a protocol context for a data service of a user.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the means for forwarding is adapted for forwarding data packets of different radio bearers received from the radio transceiver to at least two different processing units from a plurality of processing units based on a load balancing criterion.

10. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first interface corresponds to an optical interface for optical communication with the radio transceiver, and/or wherein the second interface corresponds to an optical interface for optical communication with the first or the second processing unit.

11. The apparatus of claim 1 being further adapted for performing load balancing, routing, O&

M (Operation and Maintenance), cell broadcast functions (Layer

     3), call processing for the RRC protocol (Radio Resource Control), and/or multi cell packet scheduling.

20. System for cloud computing in a mobile communication network, the system comprising at least one of an apparatus for balancing a load according to claim 1,

a remote radio head comprising means for receiving a receive signal in a transmission-band, means for converting the receive signal from the transmission-band to a baseband to obtain a baseband receive signal, means for determining a first receive data packet and a second receive data packet from the baseband receive signal, the first receive data packet and the second receive data packet being associated to different services,

an interface for communicating with a load balancing entity, and means for forwarding the first and the second receive data packet to the load balancing entity using the interface, and,

a baseband processing unit comprising an interface for receiving the baseband receive signal from a load balancing entity, means for determining a first receive data packet and a second receive data packet from the baseband receive signal, the first receive data packet and the second receive data packet being associated to different services, and means for processing the first receive data packet and for processing the second receive data packet.

12. A remote radio head (300) for communicating radio signals, a radio signal being received or transmitted from or to a plurality of transceivers, comprising:

means for receiving a receive signal in a transmission-band;

means for converting the receive signal from the transmission-band to a baseband to obtain a baseband receive signal;

means for determining a first receive data packet and a second receive data packet from the baseband receive signal, the first receive data packet and the second receive data packet being associated to different services;

an interface for communicating with a load balancing entity; and

means for forwarding the first and the second receive data packet to the load balancing entity using the interface.

13. The remote radio head of claim 12, further comprising:

means for obtaining a first transmit data packet and a second transmit data packet from the load balancing entity using the interface;

means for composing a baseband transmit signal based on the first transmit data packet and the second transmit data packet;

means for converting the transmit baseband signal to a transmit signal in the transmission-band; and

means for transmitting the signal in the transmission-band.

14. The remote radio head of claim 12, further comprising a power amplifier for signal transmission and means for antenna processing.

15. A baseband unit for processing a baseband receive signal, the baseband receive signal comprising a plurality of data packets, the baseband unit comprising:

an interface for receiving the baseband receive signal from a load balancing entity;

means for determining a first receive data packet and a second receive data packet from the baseband receive signal, the first receive data packet and the second receive data packet being associated to different services; and

means for processing the first receive data packet and for processing the second receive data packet.

16. The baseband unit of claim 15 further comprising:

means for receiving a first transmit data packet;

means for receiving a second transmit data packet;

means for composing a baseband transmit signal based on the first transmit data packet and based on the second transmit data packet; and

means for providing the baseband transmit signal to the load balancing entity using the interface.

17. The baseband unit of claim 15, further being adapted for performing signal processing according to PHY (Physical Layer Protocol), MAC (Medium Access Control protocol), RLC (Radio Link Control protocol) for a radio bearer and/or cell broadcast functions.

18. A method for balancing a load in a mobile communication network, comprising:

receiving receive data from a radio transceiver using a first interface;

determining a first receive data packet and a second receive data packet from the receive data, the first receive data packet and the second receive data packet being associated to different services; and

forwarding the first receive data packet to a first processing unit using a second interface, and forwarding the second receive data packet to a second processing unit using the second interface.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

receiving a first transmit data packet from the first processing unit using the second interface,

receiving a second transmit data packet from the second processing unit using the second interface, the first transmit data packet and the second transmit data packet being associated to different services,

composing baseband transmit signal based on the first transmit data packet and based on the second transmit data packet; and

forwarding the baseband transmit signal to the radio transceiver using the first interface.

22. A computer program having a program code for performing the method of claim 18 when the computer program is executed on a computer or processor.

21. Method for cloud computing in a mobile communication network, comprising:

demultiplexing a signal from a radio cell to obtain demultiplexed packets; and

routing the demultiplexed packets to different processing units.

23. A computer program having a program code for performing the method of claim 21 when the computer program is executed on a computer or processor.