Apparatus and method for adaptive-dynamic channel assignment in wireless communication networks

• US 6,230,016 B1
• Filed: 09/09/1999
• Issued: 05/08/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 01/13/1994
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Lucent Technologies, Inc. (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Lucent Technologies, Inc. (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Benveniste, Mathilde
• Primary Examiner(s): Trost, William G.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Milord, Marceau
• Application Number:
  US09/392,602
• Time in Patent Office: 607 Days
• Field of Search: 455/33.1, 455/62, 455/63, 455/54.1, 455/54.2, 455/56.1, 455/65, 455/34.1, 455/450, 455/452, 455/455, 455/67.1, 455/67.3, 455/34.2, 379/59, 379/60
• US Class Current: 455/450
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/04 Traffic adaptive resource partitioning
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/06 Hybrid resource partitioning, e.g. channel borrowing
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/18 Network planning tools
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/10 Scheduling measurement reports ; Arrangements for measurement reports
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/16 Central resource management; Negotiation of resources or communication parameters, e.g. negotiating bandwidth or QoS [Quality of Service]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/26 Resource reservation

Abstract

A channel assignment system assigns channels to various cells by the optimal partitioning of the available radio frequencies into non-overlapping sets, the optimal grouping of co-user cells, and the best assignment of the former to the latter. The objective is the maximization of traffic handling capacity which, given the multitude of cells, is expressed as the maximization of a bottleneck capacity ratio. The capacity ratio for a cell is defined as the ratio of the number of radio frequencies assigned to the cell over the number of radio frequencies needed to meet blocking probability requirements. The solution to attain an optimal non-regular channel assignment is decomposed into two mathematical programs designated a Master Program and a Subprogram. These are solved iteratively with assistance from a channel set augmentation technique impelmented between solutions of the Master and Subprogram.

Claims

1. A method of operating a wireless communications system having a plurality of substantially contiguous cells, said method comprising the steps of:

inputting traffic patterns for the cells into a computing device, where traffic data for said traffic patterns is measured substantially contemporaneously with said inputting of said traffic patterns into said computing device;

computing an assignment of radio channels sets to the cells using said traffic patterns; and

dynamically recomputing said assignment of radio channels corresponding with temporal changes in said traffic patterns.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein said step of computing an assignment of radio channel sets further includes the steps of:

determining if, upon arrival of a new channel request, a cell has exhausted the channels assigned to the cell;

determining if there is a free channel assigned to another cell that meets interference and system constraints if assigned to the new channel request, given the set of current users of the channel; and

assigning the request to said free channel assigned to another channel that meets interference and system constraints.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein said step of computing includes the step of partitioning the available radio channels into disjoint sets.