Identifying coverage holes using inter-rat handover measurements

• US 8,868,067 B2
• Filed: 12/28/2012
• Issued: 10/21/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 07/27/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Chou, Joey, Mena, Jorge
• Primary Examiner(s): DOAN, PHUOC HUU
• Application Number:
  US13/730,266
• Publication Number:
  US 20140031030A1
• Time in Patent Office: 662 Days
• Field of Search: 455/423, 455/437, 455/436, 455/418, 370/331, 370/335
• US Class Current: 455/423
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 17/327 Received signal code power [RSCP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0417 Feedback systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0452 Multi-user MIMO systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/046 taking physical layer constraints into account
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0469 taking special antenna structures, e.g. cross polarized antennas into account
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0478 Special codebook structures directed to feedback optimisation
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0639 Using selective indices, e.g. of a codebook, e.g. pre-distortion matrix index [PMI] or for beam selection
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1607 Details of the supervisory signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1812 Hybrid protocols; Hybrid automatic repeat request [HARQ]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1864 ARQ related signaling H04L1/1607 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0053 Allocation of signaling, i.e. of overhead other than pilot signals
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0055 Physical resource allocation for ACK/NACK for physical mapping arrangements in ARQ protocols H04L1/1861
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/02 Arrangements for optimising operational condition
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/04 Arrangements for maintaining operational condition
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/00837 Determination of triggering parameters for hand-off
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/0085 Hand-off measurements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/04 Reselecting a cell layer in multi-layered cells
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/1443 between licensed networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/302 due to low signal strength
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/241 taking into account channel quality metrics, e.g. SIR, SNR, CIR, Eb/lo
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/38 : TPC being performed in particular situations
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/046 : the resource being in the space domain, e.g. beams
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/21 : in the uplink direction of a wireless link, i.e. towards the network
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/23 : in the downlink direction of a wireless link, i.e. towards a terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/08 : Access point devices

Abstract

Embodiments of systems and techniques for identifying coverage holes in a radio access technology (RAT) are described. In some embodiments, a network management (NM) apparatus may receive a first report, including one or more measurements taken by a first user equipment (UE), in response to an event related to a handover of the first UE between a first radio access technology (RAT) and a second RAT different from the first RAT. The NM apparatus may receive a second report including one or more measurements taken by a second UE in response to an event related to a handover of the second UE between the first RAT and a third RAT different from the first RAT. The NM apparatus may identify a hole in a coverage area of the first RAT based at least in part on the first and second reports. Other embodiments may be described and claimed.

Claims

1. One or more computer-readable media having instructions that, when executed, cause a network management (NM) apparatus to:

receive a first report, including one or more measurements taken by a first user equipment (UE), in response to an event related to a handover of the first UE between a first radio access technology (RAT) and a second RAT different from the first RAT;

receive a second report including one or more measurements taken by a second UE in response to an event related to a handover of the second UE between the first RAT and a third RAT different from the first RAT; and

identify a hole in a coverage area of the first RAT based at least in part on the first and second reports.

2. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 1, wherein the first RAT is an evolved universal terrestrial radio access (E-UTRA) technology.

3. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 1, wherein each of the second and third RATs are a universal mobile telecommunications system terrestrial radio access (UTRA) technology or a global system for mobile communications enhanced data rates for global system for mobile communication evolution radio access (GERA) technology.

4. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 1, wherein the handover of the first UE between the first RAT and the second RAT is a handover of the first UE between a first evolved universal terrestrial radio access network (E-UTRAN) cell and the second RAT, and the handover of the second UE between the first RAT and the third RAT is a handover of the second UE between a second E-UTRAN cell and the third RAT, the second E-UTRAN cell different from the first E-UTRAN cell.

5. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 1, wherein the one or more measurements included in the first report comprise one or more of reference signal received power (RSRP), reference signal received quality (RSRQ), an identifier of a cell that served the first UE in the first RAT, location information, and a time stamp representative of a time of an event related to a handover.

6. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 1, wherein the first and second UEs are a common UE.

7. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 1, wherein identify a hole in a coverage area of the first RAT based at least in part on the first and second reports comprises correlate the first and second reports.

8. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 1, further having instructions that, when executed, cause the NM apparatus to:

recommend a corrective action based on the identified hole.

9. An evolved nodeB (eNB) associated with a first radio access technology (RAT), the eNB comprising:

first transmitter circuitry to transmit, to a user equipment (UE) in a cell served by the eNB, a command to handover the UE to a second RAT that is different from the first RAT;

receiver circuitry to receive, from the UE in response to the command, one or more measurements taken by the UE and representative of conditions proximate to an edge of the cell; and

second transmitter circuitry to transmit, to a domain management (DM) apparatus or a network management (NM) apparatus, a report including the one or more measurements for use in identifying coverage holes in the first RAT.

10. The eNB of claim 9, wherein the second RAT comprises a universal mobile telecommunications system terrestrial radio access (UTRA) technology or a global system for mobile communications enhanced data rates for global system for mobile communications evolution radio access (GERA) technology.

11. The eNB of claim 9, wherein the one or more measurements are taken by the UE in response to receiving the command at the UE.

12. The eNB of claim 9, wherein the one or more measurements are taken by the UE prior to receiving the command at the UE.

13. The eNB of claim 9, wherein the first transmitter circuitry is further to:

transmit, to the UE, parameters representative of which measurements are to be taken by the UE as representative of conditions proximate to the edge of the cell.

14. The eNB of claim 13, wherein the parameters are representative of one or more of reference signal received power (RSRP), reference signal received quality (RSRQ), an identifier of the cell, location information, and a time stamp representative of a time of an event related to a handover.

15. The eNB of claim 9, wherein transmit, to a DM apparatus or an NM apparatus, a report including the one or more measurements comprises transmit the report to a centralized coverage and capacity optimization (CCO) function of an NM apparatus.

16. A user equipment (UE) comprising:

receiver circuitry to receive a command from an evolved nodeB (eNB) serving the UE, the eNB associated with a first radio access technology (RAT) having a coverage hole proximate the UE, to handover the UE to a second RAT different from the first RAT;

transmitter circuitry to transmit to the eNB, in response to receiving the command, one or more measurements taken by the UE and representative of conditions proximate to the coverage hole; and

handover circuitry to perform the handover to the second RAT after the one or more measurements are transmitted to the eNB.

17. The UE of claim 16, wherein the second RAT is a universal mobile telecommunications system terrestrial radio access (UTRA) technology or a global system for mobile communications enhanced data rates for global system for mobile communication evolution radio access (GERA) technology.

18. The UE of claim 16, wherein receive a command to handover the UE to a second RAT occurs when the UE is proximate to an edge of a cell of the first RAT served by the eNB.

19. The UE of claim 18, wherein receive a command to handover the UE to a second RAT occurs when the UE is proximate to an edge of an E-UTRAN cell served by the eNB and no other E-UTRAN cell is sufficiently close to the UE to serve the UE.

20. The UE of claim 16, further comprising:

measurement circuitry to take the one or more measurements, the one or more measurements comprising one or more measurements of the group of measurements consisting of reference signal received power (RSRP), reference signal received quality (RSRQ), an identifier of a cell that served the UE in the first RAT, location information, and a time stamp representative of a time of an event related to a handover.