METHODS FOR SYNCHRONOUS ACCESS OF UNLICENSED MEDIUM BY GROUPING SMALL CELLS IN LICENSED ASSISTED ACCESS (LAA) NETWORKS

• US 20170094584A1
• Filed: 09/29/2015
• Published: 03/30/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 09/29/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: Salem, Mohamed Adel, Maaref, Amine
• Granted Patent: US 10,237,745 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/10 Dynamic resource partitioning
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/14 Spectrum sharing arrangements between different networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/18 Selecting a network or a communication service

Abstract

Methods and systems for managing access of a communication resource in a licensed assisted access (LAA) network. Each transmission point (TP) of a plurality of TPs provides a first set of information indicative of expected usage of a first communication resource by each TP. Information is transmitted to the TPs to cause each TP to align usage or reservation of the first communication resource with any other TP belonging to a first radio access cluster (RAC) to which the given TP belongs, the first RAC being one in a first set of one or more RACs, wherein each of the plurality of TPs belongs to a respective RAC in the first set of RACs and each RAC in the first set of RACs contains one or more TPs.

Claims

1. A method for managing access of a communication resource in a licensed assisted access (LAA) network, the method comprising:

receiving, from a plurality of transmission points (TPs), a first set of information indicative of expected usage of a first communication resource by each TP; and

in accordance with the first set of information, transmitting information to the plurality of TPs to cause each given TP to align usage or reservation of the first communication resource with any other TP belonging to a first radio access cluster (RAC) to which the given TP belongs, the first RAC being one in a first set of one or more RACs, wherein each of the plurality of TPs belongs to a respective RAC in the first set of RACs and each RAC in the first set of RACs contains one or more TPs.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a second set of information indicative of expected usage of a second communication resource by each TP; and

transmitting information to the plurality of TPs to cause each given TP to align usage or reservation of the second communication resource with any other TP belonging to a second radio access cluster (RAC) to which the given TP belongs, the second RAC being one in a second set of one or more RACs, wherein each of the plurality of TPs belongs to a respective RAC in the second set of RACs and each RAC in the second set of RACs contains one or more TPs.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the received first set of information comprises information about WLAN load impacted by transmission by each TP and served load of each TP.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein each RAC in the first set of RACs is defined to optimize expected usage of the first communication resource by the TPs belonging to each RAC.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the received first set of information comprises information about WLAN load impacted by transmission by each TP and served load of each TP, and wherein expected usage of the first communication resource is calculated as a ratio of served load to total of served load plus a load proportional to the WLAN load impacted by transmission of the TP.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

transmitting information to the plurality of TPs to cause each TP belonging to a given RAC to synchronize sensing of availability of the first communication resource with any other TP belonging to the given RAC.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

receiving a second set of information from the plurality of TPs, the second set of information including information about the availability of the first communication resource for access by the TPs;

wherein the information transmitted to the plurality of TPs includes information to cause each TP belonging to the given RAC to align usage or reservation of the first communication resource with any other TP belonging to the given RAC within an access window determined in accordance with the second set of information.

8. The method of claim 1, performed by a server associated with the plurality of TPs, wherein the first set of information is received from the plurality of TPs in response to a request for information sent from the server to the TPs.

9. The method of claim 1, performed by a first server associated with the plurality of TPs, further comprising:

receiving, from a second server associated with a different plurality of TPs, aggregated information indicative of expected usage of a first communication resource by the different plurality of TPs; and

in accordance with the aggregated information, transmitting information to the second server and to at least one first TP associated with the first server and belonging to a cross-server RAC to cause the at least one first TP and at least one second TP associated with the second server and belonging to the cross-server RAC to align usage of the first communication resource with each other.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

for the cross-server RAC;

transmitting information to the second server and to the at least one first TP to cause the TPs belonging to the cross-server RAC to synchronize sensing of availability of the first communication resource;

for other RACs;

transmitting information to the one or more TPs belonging to the RAC to cause the one or more TPs belonging to the RAC to synchronize sensing of availability of the first communication resource; and

receiving a second set of information from the plurality of TPs and from the second server, the second set of information including information about the availability of the first communication resource for access by the TPs, including TPs belonging to the cross-server RAC;

wherein the information transmitted to the plurality of TPs and to the second server includes information to cause each TP belonging to each given RAC to align usage or reservation of the first communication resource with any other TP belonging to the given RAC within an access window determined in accordance with the second set of information.

11. A system for managing access of a communication resource in a licensed assisted access (LAA) network, the system comprising a processor configured to execute instructions that cause the system to:

receive, from a plurality of transmission points (TPs) associated with the system, a first set of information indicative of expected usage of a first communication resource by each TP; and

in accordance with the first set of information, transmit information to the plurality of TPs to cause each given TP to align usage or reservation of the first communication resource with any other TP belonging to a first radio access cluster (RAC) to which the given TP belongs, the first RAC being one in a first set of one or more RACs, wherein each of the plurality of TPs belongs to a respective RAC in the first set of RACs and each RAC in the first set of RACs contains one or more TPs.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the processor is configured to execute instructions that further cause the system to:

receive a second set of information indicative of expected usage of a second communication resource by each TP; and

transmit information to the plurality of TPs to cause each given TP to align usage or reservation of the second communication resource with any other TP belonging to a second radio access cluster (RAC) to which the given TP belongs, the second RAC being one in a second set of one or more RACs, wherein each of the plurality of TPs belongs to a respective RAC in the second set of RACs and each RAC in the second set of RACs contains one or more TPs.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the received first set of information comprises information about WLAN load impacted by transmission by each TP and served load of each TP.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein each RAC in the first set of RACs is defined to optimize expected usage of the first communication resource by the TPs belonging to each RAC.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the received first set of information comprises information about WLAN load impacted by transmission by each TP and served load of each TP, and wherein expected usage of the first communication resource is calculated as a ratio of served load to total of served load plus a load proportional to the WLAN load impacted by transmission of the TP.

16. The system of claim 11, wherein the processor is configured to execute instructions that further cause the system to:

transmit information to the plurality of TPs to cause each TP belonging to a given RAC to synchronize sensing of availability of the first communication resource with any other TP belonging to the given RAC.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the processor is configured to execute instructions that further cause the system to:

receive a second set of information from the plurality of TPs, the second set of information including information about the availability of the first communication resource for access by the TPs;

wherein the information transmitted to the plurality of TPs includes information to cause each TP belonging to the given RAC to align usage or reservation of the first communication resource with any other TP belonging to the given RAC within an access window determined in accordance with the second set of information.

18. The system of claim 11, wherein the first set of information is received from the plurality of TPs in response to a request for information sent from the system to the TPs.

19. The system of claim 11, wherein the system is a first system associated with the plurality of TPs, wherein the processor is configured to execute instructions that further cause the system to:

receive, from a second system associated with a different plurality of TPs, aggregated information indicative of expected usage of a first communication resource by the different plurality of TPs; and

in accordance with the aggregated information, transmit information to the second system and to at least one first TP associated with the first server and belonging to a cross-server RAC to cause the at least one first TP and at least one second TP associated with the second server and belonging to the cross-server RAC to align usage of the first communication resource with each other.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the processor is configured to execute instructions that further cause the system to:

for the cross-server RAC;

transmit information to the second server and to the at least one first TP to cause the TPs belonging to the cross-server RAC to synchronize sensing of availability of the first communication resource;

for other RACs;

transmit information to the one or more TPs belonging to the RAC to cause the one or more TPs belonging to the RAC to synchronize sensing of availability of the first communication resource; and

receive a second set of information from the plurality of TPs and from the second server, the second set of information including information about the availability of the first communication resource for access by the TPs, including TPs belonging to the cross-server RAC;

wherein the information transmitted to the plurality of TPs and to the second server includes information to cause each TP belonging to each given RAC to align usage or reservation of the first communication resource with any other TP belonging to the given RAC within an access window determined in accordance with the second set of information.

21. A method, by a transmission point (TP), for accessing a communication resource in a licensed assisted access (LAA) network, the method comprising:

transmitting, to a central server, a first set of information indicative of expected usage of a first communication resource by the TP;

receiving information from the central server about a radio access cluster (RAC) to which the TP belongs, the information including timing information for accessing the first communication resource; and

accessing or reserving the first communication resource in accordance with the timing information.

22. The method of claim 21, further comprising:

transmitting, to the central server, a second set of information indicative of expected usage of a second communication resource by the TP;

receiving information from the central server about a different RAC to which the TP belongs, the different RAC being used for the second communication resource, the information including timing information for accessing the second communication resource; and

accessing or reserving the second communication resource in accordance with the timing information.

23. The method of claim 21, wherein the first set of information comprises information about WLAN load impacted by transmission by each TP and served load of each TP.

24. The method of claim 21, further comprising:

receiving information from the central server to cause the TP to perform synchronized sensing of availability of the first communication resource with other TPs belonging to the RAC.

25. The method of claim 24, further comprising:

transmitting, to the central server, a second set of information, the second set of information including information about the availability of the first communication resource for access by the TP;

wherein the timing information received from the central server includes information to cause the TP to align usage or reservation of the first communication resource with other TPs belonging to the RAC within an access window.

26. The method of claim 21, wherein the first set of information is transmitted in response to a request for information sent from the central server to the TP.

27. The method of claim 21, wherein the first set of information is transmitted in response to detection of a trigger condition at the TP.