CELL USER OCCUPANCY INDICATOR TO ENHANCE INTELLIGENT TRAFFIC STEERING

• US 20150111575A1
• Filed: 10/18/2013
• Published: 04/23/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 10/18/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Mobility II LLC (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Mobility II LLC (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Lei, Hongyan, Henderson, Thomas W.
• Granted Patent: US 9,591,536 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/436
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/0226 based on location or mobility handoff or reselection H04W36/00; mobile application services making use of the location of users or terminals H04W4/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/0247 based on conditions of the access network or the infrastructure network central resource management H04W28/16
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/0861 between base stations
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/08 Reselecting an access point
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/22 for handling the traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 92/20 between access points

Abstract

Traffic associated with user equipment that are served by a first radio access network is steered to a second radio access network based on a cell user occupancy criterion. Cell user occupancy data that represents a maximum number of devices served by an access point is determined based on a type of the access point (e.g., macro access point, femto access point, WiFi access point, etc.). Further, based on the cell user occupancy data, a normalized index value is generated that is relative to different cell types/capacities. The cell user occupancy data is then transmitted to one or more neighboring access points that can utilize the cell user occupancy data to facilitate traffic steering, load balancing, and/or neighbor relationship management.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

a memory to store executable instructions; and

a processor, coupled to the memory, that facilitates execution of the executable instructions to perform operations, comprising;

receiving cell occupancy data representing a number of devices that are determined to be capable of being served via a first access point device, and

based on the cell occupancy data, facilitating a steering of a data flow associated with a user equipment that is coupled to a second access point device, wherein the steering comprises facilitating communication of the data flow via the first access point device.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the cell occupancy data comprises a normalized value that represents the number of devices.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the cell occupancy data is determined based on classification data indicative of a type of the first access point device.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the cell occupancy data is received from a network management device.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the facilitating comprises biasing, based on the cell occupancy data, a mobility parameter that is employed to facilitate the steering.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the biasing comprises assigning a positive bias to the mobility parameter in response to determining that the cell occupancy data satisfies a defined criterion relating to cell occupancy of access point devices in a communication network.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the biasing comprises assigning a negative bias to the mobility parameter in response to determining that the cell occupancy data does not satisfy the defined criterion.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the facilitating the steering comprises directing the cell occupancy data to the user equipment.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the facilitating the steering comprises directing, to the user equipment, instruction data that instructs the user equipment to initiate attachment signaling to couple to the first access point device.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the receiving comprises receiving the cell occupancy data via a radio access network information message.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the receiving comprises receiving the cell occupancy data by employing an X2 application protocol.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

based on the cell occupancy data, modifying a ranking of the first access point device within a neighbor relation table associated with the second access point device.

13. A method, comprising:

determining, by a first access point device comprising a processor, cell occupancy data indicative of a number of devices that are determined to be capable of being served by the first access point device; and

directing, by the first access point device, the cell occupancy data to a second access point device to initiate a steering of a data flow associated with a user equipment that is served by the second access point device, wherein the steering comprises facilitating communication of the data flow via the first access point device.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the determining comprises determining the cell occupancy data based on classification data indicative of a type of the first access point device.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the determining comprises receiving the cell occupancy data from a network configuration device.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein the determining comprises determining a normalized value that represents the number of devices.

17. The method of claim 13, wherein the directing comprises directing the cell occupancy data via a radio access network information message.

18. The method of claim 13, wherein the directing comprises directing the cell occupancy data by employing an X2 application protocol.

19. A computer readable storage device comprising executable instructions that, in response to execution, cause a system comprising a processor to perform operations, comprising:

receiving, from a set of access point devices, cell occupancy data indicative of respective cell occupancy indicators of the set of access point devices, wherein the cell occupancy indicators represents a number of user equipment that are determined to be capable of being coupled to the respective access point devices, and

based on the cell occupancy data, selecting an access point device of the access point devices, wherein a data flow associated with a user equipment served by a source access point device is steered to the access point device.

20. The computer readable storage device of claim 19, wherein the selecting comprises selecting the access point device based on load index data representing a network load of the access point device.