Neighbor list generation in wireless networks

• US 7,826,847 B1
• Filed: 07/13/2007
• Issued: 11/02/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 07/14/2006
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: AT&T Mobility IP LLC (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Carrier Iq
• Inventors: Roskowski, Steve, Leak, Bruce Alan
• Primary Examiner(s): Patel; Ajit
• Application Number:
  US11/777,950
• Time in Patent Office: 1,208 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 455/436
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/00835 Determination of neighbour cell lists

Abstract

Generating neighbor lists. A set of devices are provisioned to report on neighbor lists and visibility of sectors. Each device in the set of devices generates event data that includes the neighbor list from a sector, other sectors visible while using the neighbor list, and/or sectors visible to the device if the call was dropped or lost. The event data can be recorded or stored by the device or forwarded to a server immediately or at a later time. The event data of each device is received at and recorded by a management system. The management system can derive recommended neighbor lists for each sector in a wireless network based on the cumulative event data received from the set of devices operating in the network.

Claims

1. In a wireless network where sectors deliver neighbor lists to wireless devices operating in the wireless network, a method for generating a neighbor list for a primary sector, the method comprising:

receiving event data from a set of devices operating in a wireless network, wherein the event data from the set of devices includes an identifier for a primary sector and a list of sectors visible to the set of devices when using the primary sector;

for the primary sector, reviewing the event data from the set of devices to identify sectors for inclusion in a recommended neighbor list for the primary sector, wherein reviewing the event data includes evaluating a relative physical location of the sectors to be recommended for inclusion in the recommended neighbor list, wherein the relative physical location is estimated by comparing a phase offset of a particular sector, wherein a sector having a phase offset that is large relative to phase offsets of other sectors is at least one of;

a candidate for removal from a current neighbor list;

or

not recommended for inclusion in the recommended neighbor list;

excluding the sector from the recommended neighbor list when the phase offset of the sector is comparatively larger than the phase offset of the other sectors; and

pushing the recommended neighbor list to the primary sector in the wireless network.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving event data from a set of devices operating in a wireless network further comprises receiving event data that includes a list of sectors visible to each device in the set of devices after a radio session is terminated.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein reviewing the event data from the set of devices to identify sectors for inclusion in a recommended neighbor list for the primary sector further comprises applying a signature to the event data to identify the event data that is attributable to a neighbor list error.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein reviewing the event data from the set of devices to identify sectors for inclusion in a recommended neighbor list for the primary sector further comprises adding sectors to the recommended neighbor list that are not present on the current neighbor list.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein reviewing the event data from the set of devices to identify sectors for inclusion in a recommended neighbor list for the primary sector further comprises removing sectors from the current neighbor list.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein reviewing the event data from the set of devices to identify sectors for inclusion in a recommended neighbor list for the primary sector further comprises evaluating a power level of sectors included in the current neighbor list or visible to each device in the set of devices, the power level being recorded by each device and included in the event data.

7. The method of claim 1 where in the detection of an unexpected physical topology in the identified sectors for inclusion in the recommended neighbor list invokes an external alerting mechanism to indicate an anomalous situation has been detected in the physical topology of the network.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein reviewing the event data from the set of devices to identify sectors for inclusion in a recommended neighbor list for the primary sector further comprises determining if a load on the network is a contributor to a variation in visible sectors reported in the event data.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising provisioning each device in the set of devices with a collection profile configured to detect and record event data attributable to neighbor list errors.

10. A non-transitory computer readable medium having computer executable instructions for performing the method of claim 1.

11. A method for generating a neighbor list for use by a primary sector, the method comprising:

recording, in event data, each sector that is visible to a device while using a neighbor list received from the primary sector;

identifying additional sectors that are in radio contact with the device after experiencing an event that resets neighbor list data of the device, wherein the additional sectors are included in the event data;

providing the event data to a data collection and management server, wherein the data collection and management server uses the event data along with event data from other devices operating in the network to generate a recommended neighbor list; and

comparing a phase offset of a particular sector to a phase offset of other sectors included in the event data, wherein if the phase offset of the particular sector is comparatively larger than the phase offset of the other sectors, excluding the particular sector from the recommended neighbor list for the primary sector.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising generating the recommended neighbor list by adding, to the recommended neighbor list, sectors visible to the device but not included in the current neighbor list.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising adding the additional sectors visible to the device to the recommended neighbor list.

14. The method of claim 11, further comprising identifying sectors that appear in a neighbor list with low power as candidates for removal from the current neighbor list, wherein the power of each sector visible to the device is included in the event data.

15. The method of claim 11, further comprising at least one of:

identifying the particular sector as a candidate for removal if the particular candidate is on the current neighbor list;

not recommending the particular sector for inclusion in the recommended neighbor list;

adjusting one of a power or an azimuth of the particular sector;

or

identifying an unexpected topology in the network.

16. The method of claim 11, further comprising incorporating load based parameters, time of day into the generation of the recommended neighbor list.

17. The method of claim 11, further comprising pushing the recommended neighbor list to the sector.

18. A non-transitory computer readable medium having computer executable instructions for performing the method of claim 11.

19. A method for generating recommended neighbor lists for sectors in a wireless network, the method comprising:

recording event data according to a collection profile each time each device in the set of devices receives a current neighbor list from a sector, wherein the event data identifies a particular sector that provided the neighbor list and all sectors that are visible to the device;

identifying new sectors visible to the device after usage of the device that are not included in the current neighbor list;

identifying a power or azimuth problem in a certain sector in the current neighbor list based on a phase offset associated with the current sector when compared to phase offsets of other sectors in the current particular neighbor list and excluding the certain sector from a recommended neighbor list; and

identifying the recommended neighbor list that includes the new sectors.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising one or more of:

accumulating event data from the set of devices, wherein the event data includes additional sectors that are either included in the recommended neighbor list or removed from the current neighbor list;

recommending sectors for removal from the current neighbor list that have low power or that do not appear at high power in the event data from the set of devices;

recommending sectors for inclusion or exclusion in the recommended neighbor list based on a phase offset of each sector;

identifying unexpected phase offsets of sectors in the current neighbor list and in the new sectors; and

analyzing variations in the current neighbor list based on load parameters in the wireless network.

21. The method of claim 19, further comprising identifying a capacity problem based on load based variations in neighbor lists derived from the event data received from the set of devices.

22. The method of claim 19, further comprising identifying a deployment problem in the wireless network based on the event data.

23. In a wireless network that provides guidance information to participating device as to which network elements can or should be utilized to maintain wireless communications, a method for configuring the wireless network, the method comprising:

recording event data from one or more wireless devices, the event data including one or more events and further comprising;

radio information identifying current guidance information utilized by the one or more wireless devices during the one or more events, current radio resources utilized at the time of the one or more events included in the event data, and radio elements of the network utilized during the one or more events included in the event data; and

providing the event data to a data collection and management server, wherein the data collection and management server utilizes the event data to generate new configuration data to be distributed as guidance information to the one or more wireless devices for subsequent events;

identifying a power or azimuth problem in a sector based on a phase offset associated with that sector when compared to phase offsets of other sectors in a particular neighbor list; and

excluding the sectors with the power or azimuth problem from the configuration data.

24. The method of claim 23, where the wireless network comprises a CDMA network.

25. The method of claim 24, where the guidance information comprises a neighbor list.

26. The method of claim 25, where the current radio resources comprises a sector.

27. The method of claim 23, wherein the radio element of the network comprises sectors used within the one or more events.

28. The method of claim 23, wherein the data collection and management server recommends first radio elements for inclusion in the guidance information and/or second radio elements for removal from the guidance information.

29. The method of claim 23, wherein the wireless devices include one or more of cellular telephones, pagers, laptop computers, personal digital assistants or network compatible devices.

30. The method of claim 23, further comprising analyzing the event data to detect radio communication problems in the wireless network, the communication problems including one or more of:

identifying unexpected phase offsets of radio resources to radio elements;

analyzing variations in the guidance information based on load parameters in the wireless network;

identifying a capacity problem based on load based variations in the radio information obtained from the event data received from the one or more wireless devices;

or

identifying a deployment problem in the wireless network based on the event data.