System for dynamically allocating channels among base stations in a wireless communication system
First Claim
1. A wireless communication system including:
- A. a plurality of wideband base stations that service mobile telephone terminals over a plurality of channels within an assigned frequency range, each base station polling the channels within the assigned frequency range to determine inactive channels and requesting the allocation to the base station of one of the inactive channels;
B. a controller for controlling channel allocation among the base stations, the controller accumulating channel use information from the base stations and allocating the channels among the base stations by allocating to a particular base station one of the channels that the base station determined to be inactive; and
wherein the base stations include in the requests to the controller a list of inactive channels.
10 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A wireless communication system includes a plurality of wideband base stations and a cluster controller that dynamically controls channel allocations among the base stations. When a base station can not service a radio telephone terminal within its cell site, the base station polls the channels and sends a request for a channel to the controller, listing in the request the channels the station determines at the cell site to be inactive. The controller consults a load statistics table to determine if a first listed channel is free over the system. If so, the controller allocates the channel to the base station, if not the controller searches the table for a free channel. The controller may also include channel usage rates in the table. These rates indicate for a predetermined period of time for each base station the rate at which the base station assigns channels to the terminals and the number of channel in use simultaneously. The controller checks the channel usage rate associated with the base station to which the free channel is allocated to determine if the rate is below a predetermined maximum value. If so, the controller allocates the channel. Otherwise, the controller searches the table for a next free listed channel, and so forth. The controller may also preallocate channels to the base station based on expected use. To determine expected use, the controller accumulates the channel usage information over a number of predetermined periods of time and determines a pattern of use, if possible. The controller then, at appropriate times, i.e., when the pattern indicate changes in usage, preallocates channels from the base stations with low expected use to the base stations with high expected use.
197 Citations
19 Claims
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1. A wireless communication system including:
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A. a plurality of wideband base stations that service mobile telephone terminals over a plurality of channels within an assigned frequency range, each base station polling the channels within the assigned frequency range to determine inactive channels and requesting the allocation to the base station of one of the inactive channels; B. a controller for controlling channel allocation among the base stations, the controller accumulating channel use information from the base stations and allocating the channels among the base stations by allocating to a particular base station one of the channels that the base station determined to be inactive; and wherein the base stations include in the requests to the controller a list of inactive channels. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. A method of dynamically allocating channels among a plurality of wideband base stations including the steps of:
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A. maintaining a table of channels in a controller; B. determining from the base stations the current status of channels and including in the table of channels an indication for each channel that the channel is either in use or free; C. requiring a base station requesting a channel allocation to include in the request a list of channels determined by the base station to be inactive; D. determining the current status of a first channel on the list; E. allocating the channel to the requesting base station. - View Dependent Claims (9)
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10. A method of dynamically allocating channels among a plurality of wideband base stations including the steps of:
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A. maintaining a table of channels in a controller; B. determining from the base stations the current status of channels and including in the table of channels an indication for each channel that the channel is either in use or free; C. accumulating channel status information and determining for each base station a channel usage rate which indicates the number of times the base station assigns channels to terminals over a predetermined time period; D. requiring a base station requesting a channel allocation to include in the request a list of channels determined by the base station to be inactive; E. determining the current status of a first channel on the list; F. determining if the channel usage rate associated with the base station to which the channel is allocated is below a predetermined value; G. re-allocating the channel to the requesting base station if the associated channel usage rate is below the predetermined value; H. otherwise, determining if the channel usage rate associated with a next channel on the list is below the predetermined value; I. repeating steps G and H until either a channel is allocated or every channel on the list has been checked. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12)
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13. A method of dynamically allocating channels among a plurality of wideband base stations including the steps of:
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A. maintaining a table of channels in a controller; B. determining from the base stations the current status of channels and including in the table of channels an indication for each channel that the channel is either in use or free; C. accumulating channel status information and determining for each base station a channel usage rate at which the base station assigns the channels allocated to the base station to mobile telephone terminals; D. requiring a base station requesting a channel allocation to include in the request a list of channels determined by the base station to be inactive; E. determining the current status of a first channel on the list; F. determining if the channel usage rate associated with the base station to which the channel is currently allocated is below a predetermined value; G. allocating the channel to the requesting base station if the associated channel usage rate is below the predetermined value; H. otherwise, determining if the channel usage rate associated with the base station to which a next channel on the list is allocated is below the predetermined value; and I. repeating steps G and H until either a channel is allocated or the status of every channel on the list has been checked. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16)
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17. A method of dynamically allocating channels among a plurality of wideband base stations including the steps of:
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A. maintaining a table of channels in a controller; B. determining from the base stations the current status of channels and including in the table of channels an indication for each channel that the channel is either in use or free; C. accumulating channel status information and determining for each base station a channel usage rate at which the base station assigns the channels allocated to the base station to mobile telephone terminals; D. determining patterns of use over all the base stations; E. preallocating channels among the base stations based on the patterns of use; F. designating times at which the patterns of use change and pre-allocating channels at the designated times; and further including the step of, for each base station; a. determining the number of channels in use simultaneously over a predetermined period of time; b. determining over the predetermined time period the number of channels assigned to the terminals; and c. determining a channel usage rate based on the results of steps a and b; wherein if the channel usage rate is above a predetermined value the channel is not re-allocated from the base station to which the channel is currently allocated. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19)
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Specification