MINIMIZATION OF DRIVE TESTS UPLINK MEASUREMENTS

• US 20150109939A1
• Filed: 05/04/2012
• Published: 04/23/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 03/16/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Guangdong OPPO Mobile Telecommunications Corporation Limited
• Original Assignee: Intel Mobile Communications GmbH (Intel Corporation)
• Inventors: Schmidt, Andreas, Yang, Rongzhen
• Granted Patent: US 9,241,282 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/252
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/08 Testing, supervising or monitoring using real traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/10 Scheduling measurement reports ; Arrangements for measurement reports

Abstract

A method and radio access network device includes a processing unit configured to: separate a network measurement configuration command into at least first network measurements and second network measurements; forward the first network measurements of the network measurement configuration command over an air interface to a user equipment; receive, from the user equipment, the first network measurements on downlink communication channels to form first network measurement results; perform, in the radio access network device, the second network measurements on uplink communication channels to form second network measurement results; and combine, in the radio access network device, the first network measurement results from the user equipment with the second network measurement results from the radio access network device to form an aggregated network measurement report.

Claims

1. A method for managing network measurements, the method comprising:

separating a network measurement configuration command into at least first network measurements and second network measurements;

forwarding the first network measurements of the network measurement configuration command over an air interface to a user equipment;

receiving, from the user equipment, the first network measurements on downlink communication channels to form first network measurement results; and

performing, in a radio access network, the second network measurements on uplink communication channels to form second network measurement results.

2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

combining, in the radio access network, the first network measurement results from the user equipment with the second network measurement results from the radio access network to form an aggregated network measurement report.

3. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, at an entity of the radio access network from a core network entity, the network measurement configuration command.

4. The method according to claim 2, further comprising:

submitting the aggregated network measurement report from the radio access network to the core network entity.

5. The method according to claim 2, wherein combining further comprises:

determining if at least one of the second network measurements each satisfy a threshold; and

responsive to the second network measurements satisfying the threshold, combining the first network measurement results from the user equipment with the at least one of the second network measurement results that satisfied the threshold from the radio access network to form an aggregated network measurement report.

6. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

keeping the second network measurements of the network measurement configuration command inside the radio access network.

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein keeping the second network measurements comprises:

distributing the second network measurements of the network measurement configuration command among different radio access network entities.

8. The method according to claim 1,

wherein the radio access network is an E-UTRAN according to LTE standards.

9. The method according to claim 3,

wherein the radio access network entity is an eNodeB according to LTE standards.

10. The method according to claim 1,

wherein the radio access network is a UTRAN according to UMTS standards.

11. The method according to claim 3,

wherein the radio access network entity is at least one entity according to the UMTS standard selected from a group consisting of a NodeB and an RNC.

12. The method according to claim 3, wherein the core network entity is selected from a group consisting of an MDT Server, a Trace Collection Entity, and an Element Manager.

13. The method according to according to claim 1, wherein the second network measurements on uplink communication channels are collected in accordance with a parameter from a group consisting of UL Coverage Optimization, QoS Verification, and IP Throughput Measurement.

14. The method according to claim 13, wherein the UL Coverage Optimization comprises the parameters of Received Interference Power measurements.

15. The method according to claim 13, wherein the UL Coverage Optimization comprises the parameters of Received Interference Power measurements together with Reference Signal Received Power and Power Headroom.

16. The method according to claim 13, wherein the QoS Verification and IP Throughput Measurement comprises the parameter IP throughput measurements.

17. A radio access network device, comprising:

a memory element; and

a processing unit coupled to the memory element, the processing unit configured to;

separate a network measurement configuration command into at least first network measurements and second network measurements;

forward the first network measurements of the network measurement configuration command over an air interface to a user equipment;

receive, from the user equipment, the first network measurements on downlink communication channels to form first network measurement results;

perform, in the radio access network device, the second network measurements on uplink communication channels to form second network measurement results; and

combine, in the radio access network device, the first network measurement results from the user equipment with the second network measurement results from the radio access network device to form an aggregated network measurement report.

18. The radio access network device according to claim 17, further comprising the processing unit configured to:

receive, at the radio access network device from a core network entity, the network measurement configuration command; and

submit the aggregated network measurement report from the radio access network device to the core network entity.

19. A system for managing network measurements, the system comprising:

a radio access network device configured to;

separate a network measurement configuration command into at least first network measurements and second network measurements;

forward the first network measurements of the network measurement configuration command over an air interface to a user equipment;

perform the second network measurements on uplink communication channels to form second network measurement results;

combine a first network measurement results from the user equipment with the second network measurement results from the radio access network device to form an aggregated network measurement report; and

the user equipment configured to perform the first network measurements on downlink communication channels to form first network measurement results.

20. The system according to claim 19, further comprising

a core network entity configured to submit the network measurement configuration command to the radio access network device;

and

the radio access network device configured to submit the aggregated network measurement report from the radio access network device to the core network entity.