Radio access layer management

• US 8,112,094 B1
• Filed: 06/09/2005
• Issued: 02/07/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 06/09/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cingular Wireless LLC (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Mobility II LLC (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Wellington, Daniel P.
• Primary Examiner(s): Mehrpour, Melody
• Application Number:
  US11/148,759
• Time in Patent Office: 2,434 Days
• Field of Search: 455/435.2, 455/436, 455/448, 455/446, 455/437, 455/438, 455/439, 455/440, 455441-445, 455/452.2, 455/453, 455/522, 455/69, 455/552, 370/331, 370/335, 370/252, 370/329
• US Class Current: 455/453
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/04 Traffic adaptive resource partitioning
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/00 Supervisory, monitoring or testing arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/60 Subscription-based services using application servers or record carriers, e.g. SIM application toolkits
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/00 Local resource management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/04 Large scale networks; Deep hierarchical networks

Abstract

Architecture that efficiently adds additional carrier(s) (e.g., UMTS) to a wireless operator'"'"'s network which allows the additional carrier(s) network to co-exist with other technologies by sharing the spectrum in geographically adjacent sites. When employing UMTS, the UMTS is CDMA-based such that all users utilize the same frequency 5 MHz band. With this innovation, additional carriers (e.g., a 2^nd 5 MHz UMTS carrier) can be added when capacity is needed on a site-by-site basis without clearing an additional 5 MHz of spectrum.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

a cell configured to employ a first carrier;

a traffic management component configured to monitor congestion loading for the first carrier;

a trigger component configured to determine that the congestion loading of the first carrier meets a condition of a predetermined function; and

a carrier component configured to dynamically enable a second carrier in the cell in response to the congestion loading meeting the condition of the predetermined function, wherein the second carrier shares a band of the first carrier, and the second carrier was not operational in the cell prior to being dynamically enabled.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the second carrier is a same type of cellular service as the first carrier.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the first carrier serves an outer region of the cell.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the second carrier serves an inner-region of the cell.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the carrier component dynamically enables the second carrier in response to the congestion loading of the first carrier meeting an additional condition of the predetermined function.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the carrier component resides in a radio access node.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the first carrier operates over about a 5 MHz spectrum.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein

the trigger component is further configured to determine that congestion loading is below a predetermined threshold;

and

the carrier component is configured to dynamically disable the second carrier in response to the congestion loading being below the predetermined threshold, wherein the second carrier is not operational in the cell after being disabled.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the congestion loading is based in part on carrier traffic associated with high data rate data.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the carrier component resides in a radio network controller.

11. The system of claim 1, further comprising an artificial intelligence component configured to dynamically infer a condition that triggers dynamically enabling the second carrier.

12. A system, comprising:

a traffic management component configured to monitor traffic of a first cellular service;

a trigger component configured to monitor a set of trigger parameters associated with an amount of the traffic of the first cellular service, and determine that a trigger in the set of triggers satisfies at least one predetermined criterion; and

a carrier component configured to dynamically enable a second cellular service in a cell configured to employ the first cellular service, in response to the trigger in the set of triggers satisfying the at least one predetermined criterion, wherein the second cellular service is not operational in the cell prior to being dynamically enabled by the carrier component.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the second cellular service is a same type of service as the first cellular service.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein the first cellular service is configured to employ global system for mobile telecommunications technology.

15. The system of claim 12, wherein the second cellular service is configured to employ universal mobile telecommunications system technology.

16. The system of claim 12, wherein

the trigger component is further configured to monitor an other set of trigger parameters associated with an amount of the traffic of the second cellular service, and determine that a trigger in the other set of triggers satisfies the at least one predetermined criterion;

the carrier component is further configured to dynamically enable a third cellular service in the cell, in response to the trigger in the other set of triggers satisfying the at least one predetermined criterion, wherein the third cellular service is not operational in the cell prior to being dynamically enabled by the carrier component.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the first cellular service and the second cellular service are configured to employ universal mobile telecommunications system technology, and the third cellular service is configured to employ a narrowband frequency re-use based service.

18. The system of claim 12, wherein the first cellular service and the second cellular service are further configured to utilize a frequency spectrum associated with the cell.

19. The system of claim 12, where the traffic management component, trigger component, and the carrier component are included in a radio access node.

20. The system of claim 12, further comprising an artificial intelligence component configured to dynamically infer a criterion that triggers dynamically enabling the second cellular service.

21. The system of claim 12, wherein

the trigger component is further configured to determine that the at least one predetermined criterion is not satisfied by at least one trigger in a set of triggers;

and

the carrier component is further configured to dynamically disable the second cellular service, in response to the at least one predetermined criterion not being satisfied by at least one trigger in the set of triggers, wherein the second cellular service is not operational in the cell after being disabled by the carrier component.

22. The system of claim 12, wherein the traffic is based in part on streaming video data.

23. The system of claim 12, wherein the at least one predetermined criterion is based on a ratio of a measurement of energy-per-chip to a measurement of total received power spectral density.

24. The system of claim 12, wherein the at least one predetermined criterion is based on a received signal code power.

25. The system of claim 12, wherein the carrier component is further configured to push dual mode, global system for mobile telecommunications and universal mobile telecommunications system, traffic to the second cellular service.

40. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the carrier component executes in a radio network controller.

26. A method comprising:

providing a first universal mobile telecommunications system carrier in a cell for data communications;

determining a congestion level of the first universal mobile telecommunications system carrier satisfies a predetermined congestion criterion; and

in response to a congestion level of the first universal mobile telecommunications system carrier satisfying the predetermined congestion criterion, automatically deploying a second universal mobile telecommunications system carrier in the cell, and

deploying an additional global system for mobile telecommunications frequency, and avoiding interference between the additional global system for mobile telecommunications frequency and the second universal mobile telecommunications system frequency, wherein the second universal mobile telecommunications system carrier and the additional global system for mobile telecommunications frequency are inactive in the cell prior to being deployed.

27. The method of claim 26, further comprising

determining the congestion level of the first universal mobile telecommunications system carrier does not satisfies the predetermined congestion criterion;

and

in response to the congestion level of the first universal mobile telecommunications system carrier not satisfying the predetermined congestion criterion, automatically dropping the second universal mobile telecommunications system carrier based on the predetermined congestion criterion, wherein the second universal mobile telecommunications system carrier is inactive in the cell prior after being dropped.

28. The method of claim 26, wherein the congestion criterion is based at least in part on a set of common pilot channels.

29. The method of claim 26, wherein the automatically deploying includes automatically deploying the second universal mobile telecommunications system carrier in an inner-region of the cell.

30. The method of claim 26, wherein the deploying the second universal mobile telecommunications system carrier includes deploying the second universal mobile telecommunications system carrier on a site-by-site basis.

31. The method of claim 26, further comprising deploying the first universal mobile telecommunications system carrier, and the additional global system for mobile telecommunications carrier in an outer region of the cell.

32. The method of claim 26, further comprising deploying the first universal mobile telecommunications system carrier, a second global system for mobile telecommunications carrier, and a third global system for mobile telecommunications carrier.

33. The method of claim 26, further comprising assigning a user to the second universal mobile telecommunications system carrier before the first universal mobile telecommunications system carrier.

34. The method of claim 26, further comprising assigning a user to the first universal mobile telecommunications system carrier before the second universal mobile telecommunications system carrier.

35. The method of claim 26, further comprising assigning a user to a global system for mobile telecommunications enhanced carrier.

36. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium comprising computer executable instructions that, in response to execution by a computing system, cause the computing system to perform operations, comprising:

employing a first carrier in a cell for data communications;

detecting a level of congestion in the first carrier based in part on streaming data;

determining that the level of congestion meets a condition of a function; and

in response to the level of congestion meeting the condition of the function, deploying an other carrier in the cell, wherein the other carrier is activated in the cell upon being deployed.

37. The system of claim 36, further comprising:

determining that the level of congestion does not exceed a predetermined threshold; and

in response to the level of congestion not exceeding the predetermined threshold, removing the other carrier, wherein the other carrier is deactivated in the cell upon being removed.

38. The A non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 36, wherein the level of congestion is based at least in part on a measurement of carrier power.

39. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 36, further comprising triggering an assignment of a user to the first carrier by performing a soft handover.