Cell load balancing method and devices thereof

• US 8,958,812 B2
• Filed: 01/21/2014
• Issued: 02/17/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 09/24/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Snaptrack Incorporated (Qualcomm, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: Weiguo, Niu
• Primary Examiner(s): WASHINGTON, ERIKA ALISE
• Application Number:
  US14/159,622
• Publication Number:
  US 20140135031A1
• Time in Patent Office: 392 Days
• US Class Current: 455/453
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0882 Utilisation of link capacity
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/16 Threshold monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/125 by balancing the load, e.g. traffic engineering
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/0861 between base stations
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/22 for handling the traffic

Abstract

A cell load balancing method, a cell load measuring method, and devices thereof are provided. The cell load balancing method includes: acquiring information of the load of a current cell and information of the load an adjacent cell; determining a target cell in which a mobility parameter needs to be modified thereof according to the information of the load of the current cell and the information of the load of the adjacent cell; sending a parameter modification request to the determined target cell; and modifying parameters of the current cell according to content of the parameter modification request if the parameter modification response message is a parameter modification response indicating modification successful. With the above solution, a load balancing solution can be better implemented in a network, thereby improving a capacity of the network, improving a success rate of user access, and reducing access delay.

Claims

1. A cell load balancing method, comprising:

acquiring information of load of a current cell and information of load of at least one adjacent cell neighboring the current cell;

determining a target cell in which a mobility parameter needs to be modified according to the information of the load of the current cell and the information of the load of the at least one adjacent cell, wherein the target cell is one of the at least one adjacent cell;

sending a parameter modification request to the target cell;

receiving a parameter modification response message returned by the target cell;

modifying parameters of the current cell according to content of the parameter modification request if the parameter modification response message indicates parameter modification for the target cell is successful; and

abandoning a current modification of the current cell, or initiating a new parameter modification request according to a cause value returned from the target cell, if the parameter modification response message indicates parameter modification for the target cell failed.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the acquiring the information of the load of the at least one adjacent cell comprises one or more of:

acquiring the information of the load of the at least one adjacent cell according to one of an air interface resource load, a hardware resource load, and a transmission resource load of the current cell;

or

acquiring a synthetic load of the current cell according to one or more of an air interface resource load, a hardware resource load, or a transmission resource load of the current cell, and acquiring the information of the load of the at least one adjacent cell according to the synthetic load of the current cell.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein the acquiring the information of the load of the at least one adjacent cell according to one or more of the air interface resource load, the hardware resource load, or the transmission resource load of the current cell comprises one or more of:

performing information of load exchange with the at least one adjacent cell to acquire the information of the load of the at least one adjacent cell if a proportion of used air interface resources in total air interface resources of the current cell reaches a first preset threshold;

performing information of load exchange with the at least one adjacent cell to acquire the information of the load of the at least one adjacent cell if a proportion of a used hardware resource load in total hardware resources of the current cell reaches a second preset threshold;

performing information of load exchange with the at least one adjacent cell to acquire the information of the load of the at least one adjacent cell if a proportion of transmission resources in total transmission resources reaches a third preset threshold;

or

performing information of load exchange with the at least one adjacent cell to acquire the information of the load of the at least one adjacent cell if one of the air interface resource load, the hardware resource load, and the transmission resource load of the current cell is in an overload status.

4. The method according to claim 2, wherein the synthetic load of the current cell is a sum of a product of the air interface resource load and a first preset coefficient, a product of the hardware resource load and a second preset coefficient, and a product of the transmission resource load and a third preset coefficient.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the determining the target cell in which the mobility parameter needs to be modified thereof comprises:

acquiring a set of candidate target cells according to a handover-related performance parameter between the current cell and the at least one adjacent cell; and

determining that a candidate target cell is the target cell in which the mobility parameter need to be modified thereof, if a difference between a load of the candidate target cell and a load of the current cell exceeds a preset threshold.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the acquiring the information of the load of the at least one adjacent cell comprises:

sending a resource status request message carrying an indication parameter to each of the at least one adjacent cell, wherein the indication parameter is configured to indicate that an adjacent cell reports which information of load if an event threshold of the adjacent cell is satisfied, or that an adjacent cell reports which information of load if a report period of the adjacent cell is reached and an event threshold of the adjacent cell is satisfied; and

receiving the information of the load sent from the adjacent cell.

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein the event threshold is that a change of a cell load satisfies a preset threshold value.

8. The method according to claim 6, wherein the sending the resource status request message to the at least one adjacent cell comprises one or more of:

transmitting the resource status request message through an interface with a node to which each of the at least one adjacent cell belongs to the each of the at least one adjacent cell respectively;

transmitting the resource status request message through a mobility management entity (MME) to which the current cell belongs to the at least one adjacent cell;

transmitting the resource status request message through a mobility management entity (MME) to which the current cell belongs and a core network entity to which each of the at least one adjacent cell belongs to the each of the at least one adjacent cell respectively;

or

transmitting the resource status request message through one of an element management system (EMS) and a network management system (NMS) to the at least one adjacent cell.

9. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

acquiring resource use information of the current cell; and

calculating load of the current cell according to the resource use information of the current cell.

10. The method according to claim 9, further comprising:

acquiring physical resource block (PRB) use rates of guaranteed bit rate (GBR) services, signaling bearers and common channels, and

wherein the calculating the load of the current cell is based on following formula if influence of non-GBR services on system load is not calculated;

load=PRB use rate of GBR services+PRB use rate of signaling bearers+PRB use rate of common channels.

11. The method according to claim 9, further comprising:

acquiring physical resource block (PRB) use rates of guaranteed bit rate (GBR) services, signaling bearers and common channels, and

wherein the calculating the load of the current cell based on following formula if load of non-GBR services is calculated according to a minimum guaranteed rate;

12. The method according to claim 9, further comprising:

acquiring physical resource block (PRB) use rates of guaranteed bit rate (GBR) services, signaling bearers and common channels, and

wherein the calculating the load of the current cell based on following formula if load of non-GBR services is calculated according to a minimum guaranteed rate;

load=PRB use rate of GBR services+PRB use rate of signaling bearers+PRB use rate of common channels+PRB use rate of non-GBR services*load proportion factor.

13. The method according to claim 9, further comprising:

acquiring physical resource block (PRB) use rates of guaranteed bit rate (GBR) services, signaling bearers and common channels, and

wherein the calculating the load of the current cell based on following formula if load of non-GBR services is calculated according to a minimum guaranteed rate;

load=PRB use rate of GBR services+PRB use rate of signaling bearers+PRB use rate of common channels+PRB use rate of service having minimum guaranteed rate in non-GBR services*number of services in non-GBR services.

14. The method according to claim 9, further comprising:

acquiring physical resource block (PRB) use rates of guaranteed bit rate (GBR) services, signaling bearers and common channels, and

wherein the calculating the load of the current cell based on following formula if load of non-GBR services is calculated according to a minimum guaranteed rate;

15. The method according to claim 9, further comprising:

setting a minimum service unit, and

determining a load of a total number of minimum service units equivalent to all services in the cell as the load of the current cell.

16. The method according to claim 9, further comprising:

acquiring information of service types supported by the current cell, and

wherein the calculating the load of the current cell according to the resource use information of the current cell comprises;

calculating the load of the current cell according to priorities of quality of service (QoS) class identifiers (QCIs) of service types supported by the current cell.

17. The method according to claim 9, further comprising:

acquiring performance parameters of the current cell, and

wherein the calculating the load of the current cell according to the resource use information of the current cell comprises;

calculating the load of the current cell according to the performance parameters of the current cell.

18. The method according to claim 1, wherein the mobility parameter contains one or more of a cell handover parameter or a cell reselection parameter.

19. A cell load balancing device, comprising:

a processor, configured to acquire information of load of a current cell and information of load of at least one adjacent cell neighboring the current cell, and determine a target cell in which a mobility parameter needs to be modified according to the information of the load of the current cell and the information of the load of the at least one adjacent cell, wherein the target cell is one of the at least one adjacent cell;

a transmitter, configured to send a parameter modification request to the target cell if the mobility parameter of the target cell needs to be modified;

a receiver, configured to receive a parameter modification response message returned by the target cell;

the processor is further configured to modify parameters of the current cell according to content of the parameter modification request if the parameter modification response message indicates parameter modification for the target cell is successful;

or

abandon a current modification of the current cell or initiate a new parameter modification request according to a cause value returned from the target cell, if the parameter modification response message indicates parameter modification for the target cell failed.

20. The device according to claim 19, wherein

the processor is further configured to acquire information of the load of the at least one adjacent cell according to one or more of an air interface resource load, a hardware resource load, ardor a transmission resource load of the current cell.

21. The device according to claim 20, wherein the processor is further configured to perform one or more of:

performing information of load exchange with the at least one adjacent cell to acquire the information of the load of the at least one adjacent cell if a proportion of used air interface resources in total air interface resources of the current cell reaches a first preset threshold;

performing information of load exchange with the at least one adjacent cell to acquire the information of the load of the at least one adjacent cell if a proportion of a used hardware resource load in total hardware resources of the current cell reaches a second preset threshold;

performing information of load exchange with the at least one adjacent cell to acquire the information of the load of the at least one adjacent cell if a proportion of transmission resources in total transmission resources reaches a third preset threshold;

or

performing information of load exchange with the at least one adjacent cell to acquire the information of the load of the at least one adjacent cell if one of the air interface resource load, the hardware resource load, and the transmission resource load of the current cell is in an overload status.

22. The device according to claim 19, wherein

the processor is further configured to acquire a synthetic load of the current cell according to one or more of an air interface resource load, a hardware resource load, or a transmission resource load of the current cell, and acquire the information of the load of the at least one adjacent cell according to the synthetic load of the current cell.

23. The device according to claim 22, wherein the synthetic load of the current cell is a sum of a product of the air interface resource load and a first preset coefficient, a product of the hardware resource load and a second preset coefficient, and a product of the transmission resource load and a third preset coefficient.

24. The device according to claim 19, wherein the processor is further configured to acquire a set of candidate target cells according to a handover-related performance parameter between the current cell and the at least one adjacent cell, and determine that a candidate target cell is the target cell in which the mobility parameter needs to be modified thereof if a difference between a load of the candidate target cell and a load of the current cell exceeds a preset threshold.

25. The device according to claim 19, wherein the transmitter is further configured to send a resource status request message to each of the at least one adjacent cell, wherein the resource status request message carries an indication parameter, the indication parameter is configured to indicate that an adjacent cell reports which information of load if an event threshold of the adjacent cell is satisfied, or that an adjacent cell reports which information of load if a report period of the adjacent cell is reached and an event threshold of the adjacent cell is satisfied;

and

the receiver is further configured to receive the information of the load sent from the adjacent cell.

26. The device according to claim 25, wherein the event threshold is that a change of a cell load satisfies a preset threshold value.

27. The device according to claim 25, wherein the transmitter is further configured to perform one or more of:

transmitting the resource status request message through an interface with a node to which each of the at least one adjacent cell belongs to the each of the at least one adjacent cell respectively;

transmitting the resource status request message through a mobility management entity (MME) to which the current cell belongs to the at least one adjacent cell;

transmitting the resource status request message through a mobility management entity (MME) to which the current cell belongs and a core network entity to which each of the at least one adjacent cell belongs to the each of the at least one adjacent cell respectively;

or

transmitting the resource status request message through one of an element management system (EMS) and a network management system (NMS) to the at least one adjacent cell.

28. The device according to claim 19, wherein the processor is further configured to acquire resource use information of the current cell and calculate load of the current cell according to the resource use information of the current cell.

29. The device according to claim 28, wherein the processor is further configured to acquire physical resource block (PRB) use rates of guaranteed bit rate (GBR) services, signaling bearers and common channels, and calculate the load of the current cell is based on following formula if influence of non-GBR services on system load is not calculated:

load=PRB use rate of GBR services+PRB use rate of signaling bearers+PRB use rate of common channels.

30. The device according to claim 28, wherein the processor is further configured to acquire physical resource block (PRB) use rates of guaranteed bit rate (GBR) services, signaling bearers and common channels, and calculate the load of the current cell based on following formula if load of non-GBR services is calculated according to a minimum guaranteed rate:

31. The device according to claim 28, wherein the processor is further configured to acquire physical resource block (PRB) use rates of guaranteed bit rate (GBR) services, signaling bearers and common channels, and calculate the load of the current cell based on following formula if load of non-GBR services is calculated according to a minimum guaranteed rate:

load=PRB use rate of GBR services+PRB use rate of signaling bearers+PRB use rate of common channels+PRB use rate of non-GBR services*load proportion factor.

32. The device according to claim 28, wherein the processor is further configured to acquire physical resource block (PRB) use rates of guaranteed bit rate (GBR) services, signaling bearers and common channels, and calculate the load of the current cell based on following formula if load of non-GBR services is calculated according to a minimum guaranteed rate:

load=PRB use rate of GBR services+PRB use rate of signaling bearers+PRB use rate of common channels+PRB use rate of service having minimum guaranteed rate in non-GBR services*number of services in non-GBR services.

33. The device according to claim 28, wherein the processor is further configured to acquire physical resource block (PRB) use rates of guaranteed bit rate (GBR) services, signaling bearers and common channels, and calculate the load of the current cell based on following formula if load of non-GBR services is calculated according to a minimum guaranteed rate:

34. The device according to claim 28, wherein the processor is further configured to set a minimum service unit, and determine a load of a total number of minimum service units equivalent to all services in the cell as the load of the current cell.

35. The device according to claim 28, wherein the processor is further configured to acquire information of service types supported by the current cell, and calculate the load of the current cell according to the resource use information of the current cell comprises:

calculating the load of the current cell according to priorities of quality of service (QoS) class identifiers (QCIs) of service types supported by the current cell.

36. The device according to claim 28, wherein the processor is further configured to acquire performance parameters of the current cell, and calculate the load of the current cell according to the performance parameters of the current cell.

37. The device according to claim 19, wherein the mobility parameter contains one or more of a cell handover parameter or a cell reselection parameter.

38. A non-transitory machine-readable medium having stored thereon, a computer program comprising at least one code section for distributing data, the at least one code section being executable by a machine for causing the machine to perform acts of:

acquiring information of load of a current cell and information of load of at least one adjacent cell neighboring the current cell;

determining a target cell in which a mobility parameter needs to be modified according to the information of the load of the current cell and the information of the load of the at least one adjacent cell, wherein the target cell is one of the at least one adjacent cell;

sending a parameter modification request to the target cell;

receiving a parameter modification response message returned by the target cell;

modifying parameters of the current cell according to content of the parameter modification request if the parameter modification response message indicates modification for the target cell is successful; and

abandoning a current modification of the current cell, or initiating a new parameter modification request according to a cause value returned from the target cell, if the parameter modification response message indicates parameter modification for the target cell failed.