SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PROVIDING COLLABORATIVE NEIGHBOR MANAGEMENT IN A NETWORK ENVIRONMENT

• US 20160165494A1
• Filed: 02/03/2015
• Published: 06/09/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 12/05/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Warburton, Nigel Edward, Grech, Sandro, Sharma, Lokendra
• Granted Patent: US 9,629,042 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1072 Discovery involving ranked list compilation of candidate peers
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/10 Scheduling measurement reports ; Arrangements for measurement reports
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/00835 Determination of neighbour cell lists
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/045 using private Base Stations, e.g. femto Base Stations, home Node B

Abstract

A method is provided in one example embodiment and may include populating a neighbor list including one or more neighbors for a cell radio using neighbor information gathered for the cell radio; receiving a detected set measurement report from a user equipment (UE), wherein the measurement report includes, at least in part, one or more primary scrambling codes (PSCs) for one or more other neighbors detected by the UE; and updating the neighbor list to include one or more of the other neighbors based, at least in part, on whether any of the one or more PSCs received in the measurement report are included in the previously gathered neighbor information.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

populating a neighbor list including one or more neighbors for a cell radio using neighbor information gathered for the cell radio;

receiving a detected set measurement report from a user equipment (UE), wherein the measurement report includes, at least in part, one or more primary scrambling codes (PSCs) for one or more other neighbors detected by the UE; and

updating the neighbor list to include one or more of the other neighbors based, at least in part, on whether any of the one or more PSCs received in the measurement report are included in the previously gathered neighbor information.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the neighbor information include at least one of:

a peer access points (APs) table including peer cell radios discovered in a grid for the cell radio using a grid discovery process;

a peer neighbors table including neighbors discovered by the peer cell radios outside the grid for the cell radio; and

a network listen table including neighbors detected over-the-air by the cell radio.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the neighbor list includes, at least in part, a cell ID and a PSC for each of the neighbors.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the updating includes ranking the neighbors in the neighbor list.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the ranking includes providing top priority to the other neighbors for which PSC(s) were received from the UE.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

performing a lookup against the neighbor information using the one or more PSCs from the measurement report.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

for each of a corresponding PSC located in a given neighbor information table, comparing measurement information for the corresponding PSC against qualification criteria; and

updating the neighbor list to include the corresponding PSC if the measurement information meets or exceeds the qualification criteria.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the qualification criteria is associated with a measurement of at least one of:

received chip energy to noise (Ec/No) ratio received by the UE associated with the corresponding PSC; and

received signal code power (RSCP) associated with the corresponding PSC.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

enabling detected set measurement reporting for the UE.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

repeating the updating for any subsequent detected set measurement reports received from the UE.

11. One or more non-transitory tangible media encoding logic that includes instructions for execution that when executed by a processor, is operable to perform operations comprising:

populating a neighbor list including one or more neighbors for a cell radio using neighbor information gathered for the cell radio;

receiving a detected set measurement report from a user equipment (UE), wherein the measurement report includes, at least in part, one or more primary scrambling codes (PSCs) for one or more other neighbors detected by the UE; and

updating the neighbor list to include one or more of the other neighbors based, at least in part, on whether any of the one or more PSCs received in the measurement report are included in the previously gathered neighbor information.

12. The media of claim 11, wherein the neighbor information include at least one of:

a peer access points (APs) table including peer cell radios discovered in a grid for the cell radio using a grid discovery process;

a peer neighbors table including neighbors discovered by the peer cell radios outside the grid for the cell radio; and

a network listen table including neighbors detected over-the-air by the small cell AP.

13. The media of claim 11, wherein the neighbor list includes, at least in part, a cell ID and a PSC for each of the neighbors.

14. The media of claim 11, wherein the updating includes ranking the neighbors in the neighbor list.

15. The media of claim 14, wherein the ranking includes providing a top priority to the other neighbors for which PSC(s) were received from the UE.

16. The media of claim 11, the operations further comprising:

performing a lookup against the neighbor information using the one or more PSCs from the measurement report.

17. The media of claim 16, the operations further comprising:

for each of a corresponding PSC located in a given neighbor information table, comparing measurement information for the corresponding PSC against qualification criteria; and

updating the neighbor list to include the corresponding PSC if the measurement information meets or exceeds the qualification criteria and wherein the qualification criteria is associated with at least one of;

a received chip energy to noise (Ec/No) ratio received by the UE associated with the corresponding PSC; and

a received signal code power (RSCP) associated with the corresponding PSC.

18. An apparatus, comprising:

a memory element for storing data; and

a processor that executes instructions associated with the data, wherein the processor and the memory element cooperate such that the apparatus is configured for;

populating a neighbor list including one or more neighbors for a cell radio using neighbor information gathered for the cell radio;

receiving a detected set measurement report from a user equipment (UE), wherein the measurement report includes, at least in part, one or more primary scrambling codes (PSCs) for one or more other neighbors detected by the UE; and

updating the neighbor list to include one or more of the other neighbors based, at least in part, on whether any of the one or more PSCs received in the measurement report are included in the previously gathered neighbor information.

19. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the neighbor information include at least one of:

a peer access points (APs) table including peer cell radios discovered in a grid for the cell radio using a grid discovery process;

a peer neighbors table including neighbors discovered by the peer cell radios outside the grid for the cell radio; and

a network listen table including neighbors detected over-the-air by the small cell AP.

20. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the neighbor list includes, at least in part, a cell ID and a PSC for each of the neighbors.