Self-optimizing wireless network

• US 8,665,835 B2
• Filed: 10/14/2011
• Issued: 03/04/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 10/16/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Viavi Solutions, Inc. (Lumentum Holdings Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Reverb Networks Inc (Lumentum Holdings Inc.)
• Inventors: Hussein, Osama, Hafedh, Trigui
• Primary Examiner(s): Lee, Jae Y
• Application Number:
  US13/273,354
• Publication Number:
  US 20120087269A1
• Time in Patent Office: 872 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 370/334
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/18 Network planning tools
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/02 Arrangements for optimising operational condition
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/04 Wireless resource allocation

Abstract

Optimizing a plurality cell sites or sectors in a wireless network including receiving network data regarding a plurality of cell sites or sectors; determining a critical zone in which communication is degraded; determining best neighbor cell sites or sectors among the neighbor cell sites or sectors associated with the critical cell sites or sectors; determining if the critical cell sites or sectors in the critical zone have available resources for achieving a desired improvement in communications; determining if the best neighbor cell sites or sectors have available resources for achieving the desired improvement in communications; and altering wireless network parameters of the critical cell sites or sectors, or the best neighbor cells sites or sectors for achieving the desired improvement in communications.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

sending a plurality of signals to incrementally change a configuration of a group of antennas including a plurality of antennas of a wireless network, the plurality of signals including a first signal, a second signal and a third signal, the second signal being sent after the first signal and before the third signal;

monitoring a performance metric value of the wireless network in response to each signal from the plurality of signals;

defining a critical zone of the wireless network based on the performance metric value associated with the first signal, the performance metric value associated with the second signal and an operational condition associated with the performance metric, the critical zone including at least a first antenna from the plurality of antennas; and

selecting, from the plurality of antennas, a set of neighbor antennas associated with the first antenna,

the sending of the third signal including selecting a configuration of the first antenna for the third signal if the first antenna has available resources for achieving a predefined improvement in the performance metric of the wireless network,

the sending of the third signal including selecting a configuration of a second antenna from the plurality of antennas for the third signal if the first antenna does not have adequate available resources for achieving the predefined improvement and if the second antenna has available resources for achieving the predefined improvement, the second antenna being from the set of neighbor antennas.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein:

each of the first signal, the second signal and the third signal is sent such that the configuration of the group of antennas is changed, the configuration of the group of antennas for the third signal corresponds to the configuration of the group of antennas for the first signal when the performance metric value for the second signal crosses the operational condition.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the plurality of signals includes a fourth signal, the fourth signal is sent after the first signal, the second signal and the third signal,

each of the first signal, the second signal, the third signal and the fourth signal is sent such that the configuration of the group of antennas is changed,

the configuration of the group of antennas for the fourth signal corresponds to the configuration of the group of antennas for the first signal when the performance metric value for the third signal crosses the operational condition and when the performance metric value for the first signal is better than the performance metric value for the second signal and the performance metric value for the third signal, the configuration of the group of antennas for the fourth signal corresponds to the configuration of the group of antennas for the second signal when the performance metric value for the third signal crosses the operational condition and when the performance metric value for the second signal is better than the performance metric value for the first signal and the performance metric value for the third signal.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the configuration of the group of antennas for each signal from the plurality of signals includes at least one of an antenna tilt, an antenna power, an antenna direction or an antenna beamwidth.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the sending of the third signal includes not selecting a configuration of any antenna from the set of neighbor antennas for the third signal if the first antenna has available resources for achieving the predefined improvement in the performance metric of the wireless network.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the sending of the third signal includes not selecting a configuration of the first antenna for the third signal if the first antenna does not have adequate available resources for achieving the predefined improvement.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the selecting of the set of neighbor antennas includes sorting the antennas from the set of neighbor antennas based at least in part on the performance metric value of the wireless network in response to the second signal.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the selecting of the set of neighbor antennas includes sorting, based at least in part on the performance metric value of the wireless network in response to the second signal, the antennas from the set of neighbor antennas to define an order for the antennas from the set of neighbor antennas, the second antenna being associated with a first position in the order for the set of neighbor antennas, and

the sending of the third signal includes selecting, for the third signal, a configuration of an antenna associated with a second position immediately following the first position in the order for the set of neighbor antennas if each of the first antenna and the second antenna does not have adequate available resources for achieving the predefined improvement.

9. A non-transitory processor-readable medium storing code representing instructions to be executed by a processor, the code comprising code to cause the processor to:

send a first configuration parameter value to a first antenna of a wireless network so that a configuration of the first antenna changes based on the first configuration parameter value at a first time;

send a second configuration parameter value to the first antenna of the wireless network so that the configuration of the first antenna changes based on the second configuration parameter value at a second time after the first time;

if a performance metric value of the wireless network associated with the second configuration parameter value crosses an operational condition and if the first antenna has available resources for achieving a predefined performance improvement for the wireless network, send the first configuration parameter value to the first antenna of the wireless network so that the configuration of the first antenna changes based on the first configuration parameter value at a third time after the second time;

if (1) the performance metric value of the wireless network associated with the second configuration parameter value crosses the operational condition, (2) the first antenna does not have adequate available resources for achieving the predefined performance improvement for the wireless network, and (3) a second antenna of the wireless network has available resources for achieving the predefined performance improvement for the wireless network, send a third configuration parameter value to the second antenna so that a configuration of the second antenna changes based on the third configuration parameter value at the third time; and

if the performance metric value of the wireless network associated with the second configuration parameter value does not cross the operational condition, send a fourth configuration parameter value to the first antenna of the wireless network so that the configuration of the first antenna changes based on the fourth configuration parameter value at the third time.

10. The non-transitory processor-readable medium of claim 9, wherein the predefined performance improvement is a first predefined performance improvement for the wireless network, the code further comprising code to cause the processor to:

if a performance metric value of the wireless network associated with the fourth configuration parameter value crosses the operational condition and if the first antenna has available resources for achieving a second predefined performance improvement for the wireless network, perform the following;

send the first configuration parameter value to the first antenna of the wireless network so that the configuration of the first antenna changes based on the first configuration parameter value at a fourth time after the third time when the performance metric value associated with the first configuration parameter value is better than the performance metric value associated with the second configuration parameter value; and

send the second configuration parameter value to the first antenna of the wireless network so that the configuration of the first antenna changes based on the second configuration parameter value at the fourth time when the performance metric value associated with the second configuration parameter value is better than the performance metric value associated with the first configuration parameter value.

11. The non-transitory processor-readable medium of claim 9, wherein:

the first configuration parameter value relates to a first parameter type,

the second configuration parameter value relates to a second parameter type different from the first parameter type.

12. The non-transitory processor-readable medium of claim 9, wherein:

the first configuration parameter value relates to a first parameter type;

the second configuration parameter value relates to the first parameter type;

the code to send the first configuration parameter value includes code to send a fifth configuration parameter value so that the configuration of the first antenna changes based on the first configuration parameter value and the fifth configuration parameter value at the first time;

the fifth configuration parameter value relates to a second parameter type different from the first parameter type.

13. The non-transitory processor-readable medium of claim 9, wherein the configuration of the first antenna includes at least one of an antenna tilt, an antenna power, an antenna direction or an antenna beamwidth.

14. The non-transitory processor-readable medium of claim 9, the code further comprising code to cause the processor to:

if (1) the performance metric value of the wireless network associated with the second configuration parameter value crosses the operational condition, (2) the first antenna does not have adequate available resources for achieving the predefined performance improvement for the wireless network, and (3) the second antenna of the wireless network has available resources for achieving the predefined performance improvement for the wireless network, refrain from sending a configuration parameter value to the first antenna so that the configuration of the first antenna remains unchanged.

15. The non-transitory processor-readable medium of claim 9, wherein the second antenna of the wireless network is a neighbor of the first antenna of the wireless network, the code further comprising code to cause the processor to:

if (1) the performance metric value of the wireless network associated with the second configuration parameter value crosses the operational condition, (2) each of the first antenna and the second antenna does not have adequate available resources for achieving the predefined performance improvement for the wireless network, and (3) a third antenna of the wireless network has available resources for achieving the predefined performance improvement for the wireless network, send a fifth configuration parameter value to the third antenna so that a configuration of the third antenna changes based on the fifth configuration parameter value at the third time, the third antenna being a neighbor of the first antenna of the wireless network.

16. A method, comprising:

repeatedly optimizing, for a period of time, performance of a coverage area of a wireless network including a plurality of cell sites based on iteratively performing;

sending a configuration parameter value for a current iteration to the wireless network;

calculating a performance metric value in response to the configuration parameter value for the current iteration;

defining a critical cell site from the plurality of cell sites based on the performance metric value for the current iteration not meeting an operational condition;

selecting, from the plurality of cell sites, a set of neighbor cell sites for the critical cell site;

reverting, in the next iteration, the wireless network to a configuration parameter value for a prior iteration if the critical cell site has available resources for achieving a predefined performance improvement for the coverage area of the wireless network; and

calculating a configuration parameter value for the next iteration if the critical cell site does not have adequate available resources for achieving the predefined performance improvement and if a cell site from the set of neighbor cell sites has available resources for achieving the predefined performance improvement, the configuration parameter value for the next iteration being different from the configuration parameter value for the prior iteration.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein:

the configuration parameter value for the prior iteration is a prior configuration parameter value for a first prior iteration,

a prior configuration parameter value for a second prior iteration is sent to the wireless network after the prior configuration parameter value for the first prior iteration is sent to the wireless network and before the configuration parameter value for the current iteration is sent to the wireless network,

a performance metric value for the second prior iteration is between a performance metric value for the first prior iteration and the operational condition.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the configuration parameter value for the current iteration relates to a first parameter type, the configuration parameter value for the prior iteration relates to a second parameter type different from the first parameter type.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein the configuration parameter value for the current iteration relates to a parameter type, the parameter type is at least one of an antenna tilt, an antenna power, an antenna direction or an antenna beamwidth.

20. The method of claim 16, wherein selecting the set of neighbor cell sites for the critical cell site includes sorting the cell sites from the set of neighbor cell sites based at least in part on the performance metric value for the current iteration.

21. The method of claim 16, wherein the cell site from the set of neighbor cell sites is a first cell site from the set of neighbor cell sites,

the method further comprising:

calculating the configuration parameter value for the next iteration if each of the critical cell site and the first cell site from the set of neighbor cell sites does not have adequate available resources for achieving the predefined performance improvement and if a second cell site from the set of neighbor cell sites has available resources for achieving the predefined performance improvement.

22. The method of claim 16, wherein the configuration parameter value for the next iteration is calculated based on the available recourses of the cell site from the set of neighbor cell sites.