Measurements for the interworking of wireless wide area and wireless local area networks

• US 9,049,608 B2
• Filed: 08/09/2012
• Issued: 06/02/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 11/04/2011
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Chou, Joey, Venkatachalam, Muthaiah
• Primary Examiner(s): Vu, Huy D
• Assistant Examiner(s): CUNNINGHAM, KEVIN M
• Application Number:
  US13/571,278
• Publication Number:
  US 20130201842A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,027 Days
• Field of Search: 370/252
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/02 Arrangements for optimising operational condition
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/0865 of different Radio Access Technologies [RATs], e.g. LTE or WiFi
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/22 for handling the traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 92/02 Inter-networking arrangements

Abstract

Technology is discussed for capturing performance measurements from Wireless Wide Area Network (WWAN) transmission points and Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) Access Points (AP). The performance measurements can provide information about the interworking a WWAN and one or more WLANs that can be used to offload traffic from the WWAN. Also, an illustrative example of the collection of performance measurements at a WWAN is explained. Furthermore, the correlation, analysis, and general harnessing of performance measurements to optimize and/or maintain combinations between a WWAN and one or more WLANs is discussed, among other topics.

Claims

1. A device for managing Wireless Wide Area Network and Wireless Local Area Network interworking, comprising:

a measurement module, residing at an interworking element, the measurement module configured to perform at least one performance measurement at the interworking element providing information about the performance of at least one Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) Access Point (AP) and at least one Wireless Wide Area Network (WWAN) node, in a combined system comprising a WWAN interworking with at least one WLAN; and

a communication module, in communication with the measurement module, and configured to send the at least one performance measurement to a Network Management (NM) server configured to collect performance measurements from multiple interworking elements, wherein the NM server collects the performance measurements in order to determine at least one monitoring result for the WLAN AP and the WWAN node, wherein the at least one monitoring result comprises one or more of;

a percentage of data throughput being offloaded from a selected WWAN node to a selected WLAN AP;

a number of active wireless mobile devices associated with the selected WWAN node and connected to the selected WLAN AP;

a percentage of data throughput being offloaded from the selected WWAN node to a set of WLAN APs in a coverage area of the selected WWAN node;

or

a number of wireless mobile devices associated with the selected WWAN node and involuntarily disconnected from the selected WLAN AP within the coverage area of the selected WWAN node.

2. The device of claim 1, further comprising a mapping module, in communication with the measurement module, configured to map a location of an interworking element comprising a particular WLAN AP to a coverage area of a particular WWAN node.

3. The device of claim 2, wherein a performance measurement of the at least one performance measurement comprises at least one of an aggregate data throughput, a data throughput per quality of service class, a number of connected wireless mobile devices, and a number of dropped wireless mobile devices, wherein the performance measurement is specific to at least one of at least one WLAN AP and a WWAN node.

4. The device of claim 1, wherein the interworking element is a sub-network server of the WWAN, and the measurement module in the sub-network server is configured to collect performance measurements on at least one of any of a WLAN AP and a WWAN node within a sub-network of the WWAN pertaining to the sub-network server.

5. The device of claim 4, wherein the sub-network comprises a Domain Manager (DM).

6. The device of claim 1, wherein the communication module sends the at least one performance measurement to the NM server over an interface-N.

7. The device of claim 1, wherein the WWAN node is an evolved Node B, as defined in Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Long Term Evolution (LTE) specifications for one of Releases 8, 9, 10, and 11, and the WLAN AP is an AP as defined in one of Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 specifications and IEEE 802.15 specifications.

8. The device of claim 1, wherein the measurement module performs a series of performance measurements on at least one of at least one WLAN AP and at least one WWAN node with sufficient regularity for the calculation of monitoring results with a granularity defined by a day of a week and a traffic-specific period of the day.

26. The device of claim 1, wherein the measurement module and the communication module reside in an Element Manager (EM) at the interworking element.

9. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer usable medium having a computer readable program code embodied therein, the computer readable program code adapted to be executed to implement a method for acquiring performance measurements for network elements in a system comprising a Wireless Wide Area Network (WWAN) interworking with at least one Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN), comprising:

making at least one performance measurement for a network element comprising one of a WWAN node and a WLAN Access Point (AP), the performance measurement configured to provide information about a contribution of the network element to an interworking between the WWAN and the WLAN; and

communicating the at least one performance measurement to a system server to optimize the interworking of the WWAN and the at least one WLAN, wherein the system server is configured to determine at least one interworking result for the system comprising the WWAN interworking with the WLAN, wherein the inter working result comprises one or more of;

a percentage of data throughput being offloaded from the WWAN node to the WLAN AP, wherein the WLAN AP is within a coverage area of the WWAN node;

a number of active wireless mobile devices associated with the WWAN node and connected to the WLAN AP;

or

a number of wireless mobile devices associated with the WWAN node and involuntarily disconnected from the WLAN AP within the coverage area of the WWAN node.

10. The computer program product of claim 9, further comprising correlating the network element to a coverage area of a WWAN node in the WWAN.

11. The computer program product of claim 9, wherein the performance measurement comprises at least one of an aggregate data throughput, a throughput per quality of service class, a number of connected wireless mobile devices, and a number of dropped wireless mobile devices.

12. The computer program product of claim 9, wherein the computer program product resides on a sub-network server capable of making a performance measurement on a WWAN node and a WLAN AP within a sub-network pertaining to the sub-network server.

13. The computer program product of claim 9, wherein the WWAN node is an evolved Node B, communicating the at least one performance measurement toward a system server occurs over an interface-N, the system server is a Network Manager, and the computer program product resides on an Element Manager, wherein the eNodeB, the interface-N, the NM, and the EM are configured as defined in Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Long Term Evolution (LTE) specifications for one of Releases 8, 9, 10, and 11 and wherein the WLAN AP is an AP as defined in one of Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 specifications and IEEE 802.15 specifications.

14. The computer program product of claim 9, wherein the system server is located at one of a Serving-GateWay (S-GW), a Mobility Management Entity (MME), a Packet Data Network GateWay (P-GW), and an external location connected to the P-GW.

15. A device for monitoring performance of network elements facilitating interworking between a Wireless Wide Area Network and at least one Wireless Local Area Network, comprising:

a collection module, residing at a system-level server, the collection module configured to receive at least one performance measurement pertaining to at least one network element, wherein a network element comprises one of a Wireless Wide Area Network WWAN node, a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) Access Point (AP), and a sub-network server, wherein the at least one performance measurement is configured to provide information about data offloading between a WWAN and at least one WLAN facilitated by the given network element; and

a calculation module, residing at the system-level server and in communication with the collection module, configured to calculate at least one performance result from the at least one performance measurement received by the collection module to optimize integration between the WWAN and the at least one WLAN, wherein the performance comprises one or more of;

a percentage of data throughput being offloaded from a selected WWAN node to a selected WLAN AP;

a number of active wireless mobile devices associated with the selected WWAN node and connected to the selected WLAN AP;

a percentage of data throughput being offloaded from the selected WWAN node to a set of WLAN APs in a coverage area of the selected WWAN node;

or

a number of wireless mobile devices associated with the selected WWAN node and involuntarily disconnected from the selected WLAN AP within the coverage area of the selected WWAN node.

16. The device of claim 15, further comprising a correlation module, in communication with the collection module, configured to correlate at least one performance measurement at a given time to a coverage area for a particular WWAN node.

17. The device of claim 15, further comprising a monitoring module, in communication with the calculation module, configured to provide an indication signal upon receiving a performance result calculated below a threshold value.

18. The device of claim 17, wherein the monitoring module waits to provide the indication signal until the performance result is consistently calculated below a threshold value for a predetermined period of time.

19. The device of claim 15, wherein the calculation module calculates the performance result with sufficient frequency such that the performance result can be correlated with a specific day and a traffic-specific period of the day.

20. The device of claim 15, wherein:

the system server is a network manager located at one of a Serving-GateWay (S-GW), a Mobility Management Entity (MME), a Packet Data Network GateWay (P-GW), and an external location connected to the P-GW;

the WWAN node is an evolved Node B; and

,

the WLAN AP is an AP as defined in one of Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 specifications and IEEE 802.15 specifications.

21. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer usable medium having a computer readable program code embodied therein, the computer readable program code adapted to be executed to implement instructions to calculate a performance metric used to determine a role played by a network element in integrating a Wireless Wide Area Network and at least one Wireless Local Area Network, comprising:

receiving, at a system server, a series of performance measurements configured to provide information about a level of integration between a Wireless Wide Area Network (WWAN) and a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN); and

calculating, at the system server, at least one performance result with the series of performance measurements, wherein the performance result comprises one or more of;

a percentage of data throughput being offloaded from a particular eNodeB to a given WLAN AP;

a number of active UEs being offloaded from the particular eNodeB to the given WLAN AP;

a percentage of data throughput being offloaded from the particular eNodeB to the at least one WLAN AP within the coverage are of the particular eNodeB;

or

a number of UEs being offloaded from the particular eNodeB to the at least one WLAN AP within the coverage area of the particular eNodeB.

22. The computer program product of claim 21, further comprising correlating each performance measurement in the series of performance measurements with a corresponding coverage area corresponding to a WWAN node from a set of WWAN nodes.

23. The computer program product of claim 21, further comprising monitoring the at least one performance result to provide a message when the value of the performance result has been below a threshold for a predetermined amount of time.

24. The computer program product of claim 21, further comprising calculating the performance result for a given network element at a set of time intervals, wherein each time interval in the set of time intervals corresponds to a duration of a predetermined period corresponding to an anticipated distinct traffic load.

25. The computer program product of claim 21, wherein:

the system server is a network manager located at one of a Serving-GateWay (S-GW), a Mobility Management Entity (MME), a Packet Data Network GateWay (P-GW), and an external location connected to the P-GW;

the WWAN node is an evolved Node B; and

,

the WLAN AP is an AP as defined in one of Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 specifications and IEEE 802.15 specifications.