Methods for access control in femto systems

• US 7,929,537 B2
• Filed: 10/12/2007
• Issued: 04/19/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 10/12/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: WSOU Investments, LLC (WSOU Holdings, LLC)
• Original Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent USA, Inc. (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Zou, Jialin, Vasudevan, Subramanian
• Primary Examiner(s): ABELSON, RONALD B
• Application Number:
  US11/907,458
• Publication Number:
  US 20090097436A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,285 Days
• Field of Search: 370/328, 370/329, 370/340, 370/341, 370/389, 370/392, 370/431
• US Class Current: 370/392
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/104 Grouping of entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/08 Access security
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/045 using private Base Stations, e.g. femto Base Stations, home Node B

Abstract

In a method for controlling access to wireless resources provided by femto cells within a femto subnet a femto management system or radio access network may control access to femto cells within the femto subnet by assigning at least one hashing class mask of a first-type or hashing class mask of a second-type to a wireless user. The hashing class mask of the first-type or hashing of the second-type class mask may be assigned based on whether the wireless user is authorized to access a first femto cell within the femto subnet. The hashing class mask of the first-type provides access to at least one first femto cell within the femto subnet.

Claims

1. A method for controlling access to wireless resources provided by femto cells within a femto subnet of a radio access network, the method comprising:

establishing, by the radio access network, a hashing channel mask of a first-type and hashing class mask of the first-type for each first femto cell within the femto subnet, each hashing class mask of the first-type providing access to at least one corresponding first femto cell within the femto subnet, the hashing channel mask of the first-type indicating channels used for communication within the femto subnet; and

assigning a hashing class mask of the first-type or a hashing class mask of a second-type to a wireless user based on whether the wireless user is authorized to access a first femto cell within the femto subnet, the hashing class mask of the first-type being associated with at least one femto cell and the hashing class mask of the first-type indicating a priority class of the wireless user, and the hashing class mask of the second-type being associated with at least one femto cell and the hashing class mask of the second-type indicating a priority class of the wireless user.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

storing, in a database within the radio access network, each established hashing channel mask of the first-type and hashing class mask of the first-type in association with identification information for wireless users authorized to access the femto cell and in association with identification information for the first femto cell.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

transmitting each assigned hashing channel mask of the first-type to a corresponding femto base station.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

broadcasting, by each femto base station, the corresponding established hashing channel mask of the first-type and a hashing channel mask of the second-type on a broadcast control channel to wireless users, the hashing channel of the second-type mask being indicative of a channel provided by a cell of the second-type within the femto subnet.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the cell of the second-type is a macro or a femto cell.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the assigning step further comprises:

determining whether a wireless user is authorized to access at least one first femto cell in the femto subnet based on identification information received from the wireless user; and

associating a class mask with the wireless user based on the determining step.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the determining step is performed in response to initial registration or idle handoff of the wireless user.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the determining step determines the wireless user is authorized to access at least one first femto cell if the wireless user'"'"'s identification information matches authorized wireless user identification information stored in a database within the radio access network, the authorized wireless user identification information being stored in association with identification information for the first femto cell.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein if the determining step determines that the wireless user is not authorized to access at least one first femto cell, the network assigns a hashing class mask of the second-type to the wireless user.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein if the determining step determines that the wireless user is authorized to access at least one first femto cell, the network assigns a hashing class mask of the first-type to the wireless user, the hashing class mask of the first-type being associated with the at least one first femto cell.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

transmitting the assigned hashing class mask to the wireless user.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one hashing channel mask of the first-type is provided to the wireless user in association with a neighbor list.

13. A method for controlling access to wireless resources within a femto cell of a radio access network, the method comprising:

establishing, by the radio access network, a hashing mask pair of a first-type for a first femto cell, the hashing mask pair of the first-type including a hashing channel mask of the first-type and corresponding hashing class mask of the first-type;

providing, by the radio access network, a hashing channel mask of a second-type for the first femto cell;

storing, within the radio access network, the hashing mask pair of the first-type and the channel hashing mask of the second-type in association with identification information for the femto cell; and

assigning one of the class hashing mask of the first-type and a class hashing mask of the second-type to a wireless user.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

broadcasting the hashing channel mask of the first-type, the hashing channel mask of the second-type and associated channels on a broadcast control channel to wireless users in the first femto cell.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the controlling step further comprises:

determining whether the wireless user is authorized to access the first femto cell based on identification information received from the wireless user; and

assigning the hashing class mask of the first-type to the wireless user based on the determining step.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the determining step determines the wireless user is authorized to access the first femto cell if the wireless user'"'"'s identification information matches authorized wireless user identification information stored in a database within the radio access network, the authorized wireless user identification information being stored in association with identification information for the first femto cell.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein if the determining step determines that the wireless user is not authorized to access the first femto cell, the network assigns the hashing class mask of the second-type to the wireless user.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein if the determining step determines that the wireless user is authorized to access the first femto cell, the network assigns the hashing class mask of the first-type to the wireless user.

19. A method for restricting access to a first femto cell in a femto subnet, the method comprising:

determining whether a wireless user authorized to access the first femto cell is present in the femto subnet; and

restricting access to the first femto cell by assigning a null hashing channel mask to the first femto cell.

20. A method controlling access to wireless resources within a radio access network, the method comprising:

establishing, by the radio access network, a hashing channel mask of a first-type and hashing class mask of the first-type for each first femto cell within each femto subnet of a femto system, each hashing class mask of the first-type providing access to at least one corresponding first femto cell;

assigning a plurality of the hashing class masks to a wireless user, each of the plurality of hashing class masks being associated with a femto subnet within a femto system;

storing the assigned hashing class masks in association with corresponding femto subnet identifiers; and

sending the assigned hashing class masks and corresponding femto subnet identifiers to the wireless user.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the femto subnet identifiers are color codes.

22. The method of claim 20, wherein when the wireless user moves to a femto subnet, the wireless user selects one of the plurality of hashing class masks based on a femto subnet identifier received from the radio access network.