Method for transmitting measurement reports in a mobile communications system

• US 6,859,654 B1
• Filed: 12/11/1998
• Issued: 02/22/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 12/12/1997
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Orange S.A.
• Original Assignee: Orange Personal Communications Services Limited (BT Group PLC)
• Inventors: Reynolds, Paul Laurence, Hope, Stephen Robert
• Primary Examiner(s): Vuong, Quochien B.
• Application Number:
  US09/581,457
• Time in Patent Office: 2,265 Days
• Field of Search: 455/436, 455/437, 455/450, 455/524, 455/525, 455/560, 455/566, 455/63.1, 455/67.13, 455/432.3, 455/63, 455/67.3, 370/331, 370/332
• US Class Current: 455/437
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/00 Supervisory, monitoring or testing arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/00 Hand-off or reselection arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/21 in the uplink direction of a wireless link, i.e. towards the network
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/542 using measured or perceived quality

Abstract

A service node is provided in a mobile communications network which collects radio link measurement reports which are transmitted to the service node by mobile stations. The mobile stations transmit the measurement reports in encapsulated form, in the form of SMS messages, in order to prevent the interception of the measurement report by the serving base station. The service node is able to perform handover decision algorithms using the measurement reports collected from the mobile stations in order to determine appropriate radio access nodes to be allocated to the mobile stations.

Claims

1. A cellular communications system comprising:

a plurality of base stations configured to conduct communications with mobile stations via a radio interface, wherein the mobile stations are used by subscribers;

a storage system arranged to receive and store first data derived from radio resource signalling reports generated by mobile stations when in connected mode in the cellular communications system, wherein the cellular communications system is arranged to route the radio resource signalling reports from the mobile stations via the plurality of base stations to the storage system, and wherein the storage system is configured to store second data associated with the subscribers; and

a service node arranged to;

receive data from the storage system for use in performing handover decisions, wherein the received data includes at least a portion of the first data and at least a portion of the second data;

process the received data so as to allocate a radio resource to the mobile station, wherein the radio resource is allocated by selecting, from base stations for which radio resource measurements have been received from the mobile station, a base station for handover at least in part on the basis of both the first data and the second data; and

transmit data identifying the allocated radio resource to at least one of the base stations.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the data associated with the subscriber includes a personal subscriber profile and/or service information.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the personal subscriber profile and/or service information includes at least one of bandwidth requirements, quality of service requirements, access rights, priority and preference lists, environment selection, hardware and software version numbers of the associated mobile station, preferred connection providers, and cost limits associated with the subscriber.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the service node is arranged to request data from the storage system in response to receipt of data from one of the mobile stations.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the service node is arranged to transmit a resource signalling report request to at least one of the mobile stations.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the system is arranged to transmit a resource signalling report request to the mobile station in response to a change in service conditions for the mobile station.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the radio resource signalling reports are encapsulated in the form of an SMS message.

8. The system of claim 7, further comprising means for extracting the radio resource signalling reports from SMS messages received from the mobile stations.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the radio resource signalling reports comprise data indicative of downlink quality and/or neighbor cell signal strength.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the radio resource signalling reports comprise data specifying the current requirements of the mobile station.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the current requirements include at least one of bandwidth, signal-to-noise ratio, radio path loss, cost, and quality of service requirements.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein the current requirements include bandwidth, signal signal-to-noise ratio, radio path loss, cost, and quality of service requirements.

13. A method of allocating radio resources to a mobile station used by a subscriber in a cellular communications system, wherein the cellular communications system comprises a plurality of base stations including a base station serving the mobile station via a radio link, and wherein the cellular communications system has access to stored data for use in performing handover decisions, wherein the stored data includes first data derived from radio resource measurement data for each of a plurality of base stations surrounding the mobile station and second data associated with the subscribers, wherein the second data is different from the first data, the method comprising:

receiving a handover request in response to conditions satisfying one or more predetermined criteria;

retrieving at least some of the stored data in response to receipt of the handover request, wherein the retrieved data includes at least a portion of the first data and at least a portion of the second data;

processing the retrieved data so as to allocate a radio resource to the mobile station, wherein the radio resource is allocated by selecting, from base stations for which radio resource measurement data is included in the stored data, a base station for handover at least in part on the basis of both the first data and the second data; and

transmitting data identifying the allocated radio resource to at least one of the base stations.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising transmitting radio resource measurement reports to the cellular communications system and storing data indicative of the same for use in the allocation of radio resources.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the radio resource measurement reports are transmitted during a dedicated channel traffic connection for the mobile station.

16. A method of allocating radio resources to a mobile station in a cellular communications system, wherein the cellular communications system comprises a plurality of base stations including a base station serving the mobile station via a radio link, and wherein the cellular communications system has access to stored data for use in performing handover decisions, the method comprising:

receiving a handover request in response to conditions satisfying one or more predetermined criteria, wherein the handover request is encapsulated as an SMS message so as to prevent the serving base station from intercepting the radio resource signalling report;

retrieving at least some of the stored data in response to receipt of the request;

processing the retrieved data so as to allocate a radio resource to the mobile station; and

transmitting data identifying the allocated radio resource to at least one of the base stations.

17. A service node for allocating radio resources to a mobile station used by a subscriber in a cellular communications system, wherein the cellular communications system comprises a network infrastructure and a plurality of base stations for conducting communications with mobile stations via a radio interface, wherein the network infrastructure comprises a storage system arranged to store data for use in performing handover decisions, wherein the storage system is configured to store first data derived from radio resource measurement data for each of a plurality of base stations surrounding the mobile station and second data associated with the subscriber, and wherein the service node is arranged to:

receive data from the storage system for use in performing handover decisions, wherein the received data includes at least a portion of the first data and at least a portion of the second data;

process the received data so as to allocate a radio resource to the mobile station, wherein the radio resource is allocated by selecting, from base stations for which radio resource measurement data is included in said stored data, a base station for handover at least in part on the basis of both the first data and the second data; and

transmit data identifying the allocated radio resource to at least one of the base stations.

18. A cellular communications system comprising:

a plurality of base stations configured to conduct communications with mobile stations via a radio interface, wherein the mobile stations are used by subscribers;

a plurality of mobile stations, wherein each mobile station is arranged to generate radio resource measurement reports when in connected mode in the cellular communications system, and wherein the radio resource measurement reports include radio resource measurement data for each of a plurality of base stations surrounding the mobile station;

a storage system arranged to receive and store first data derived from the radio resource measurement data in the radio resource measurement reports generated by mobile stations when in connected mode in the cellular communications system, wherein the cellular communications system is arranged to route the radio resource measurement reports from the mobile stations via the plurality of base stations to the storage system, and wherein the storage system is configured to store second data associated with the subscribers; and

a service node arranged to;

receive data from the storage system for use in performing handover decisions, wherein the received data includes at least a portion of the first data and at least a portion of the second data;

process the received data so as to allocate a radio resource to the mobile station, wherein the radio resource is allocated be selecting, from base stations for which radio resource measurements have been received from the mobile station, a base station for handover at least in part on the basis of both the first data and the second data; and

transmit data identifying the allocated radio resource to at least one of the base stations.