Method and apparatus for interference mitigation utilizing antenna pattern adjustments

• US 9,271,185 B2
• Filed: 12/11/2013
• Issued: 02/23/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 03/15/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ISCO International Inc.
• Original Assignee: ISCO International Inc.
• Inventors: Abdelmonem, Amr, Galeev, Mikhail, Seskiewicz, Dariusz
• Primary Examiner(s): Shaheed, K Wilford
• Assistant Examiner(s): Tacsik, Ernest
• Application Number:
  US14/102,591
• Publication Number:
  US 20140274094A1
• Time in Patent Office: 804 Days
• Field of Search: 455/63.1
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/1036 with automatic suppression of narrow band noise or interference, e.g. by using tuneable notch filters H04B1/123 takes precedence; filter circuits H03H
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/709 Correlator structure
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/71 the interference being narrowband interference
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/7103 the interference being multiple access interference
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 15/00 Suppression or limitation of noise or interference by means associated with receiver H04B1/10
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 17/00 Monitoring; Testing of line transmission systems H04B3/46; arrangements for monitoring or testing transmission systems employing electromagnetic waves other than radio waves H04B10/07
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 17/21 for calibration; for correcting measurements
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 17/26 using historical data, averaging values or statistics
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 17/318 Received signal strength
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 17/327 Received signal code power [RSCP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 17/345 Interference values signal-to-interference ratio [SIR] or carrier-to-interference ratio [CIR] H04B17/336
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 17/373 Predicting channel quality or other radio frequency [RF] parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 2201/709709 Methods of preventing interference
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 2201/709745 Iterative interference mitigation schemes
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/2634 for channel frequency control
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 11/0066 of narrowband interference narrowband interference reduction H04B1/1036
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/069 using logs of notifications; Post-processing of notifications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0007 the frequencies being orthogonal, e.g. OFDM(A), DMT
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0026 Division using four or more dimensions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0032 Distributed allocation, i.e. involving a plurality of allocating devices, each making partial allocation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/006 : Quality of the received signal, e.g. BER, SNR, water filling
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0073 : Allocation arrangements that take into account other cell interferences for intercell interference mitigation or co-ordination in orthogonal multiplex systems H04J11/005
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/28 : using beam steering
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/02 : Arrangements for optimising operational condition
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/08 : Testing, supervising or monitoring using real traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/10 : Scheduling measurement reports ; Arrangements for measurement reports
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/0236 : radio quality, e.g. interference, losses or delay
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/04 : Error control
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 : Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/023 : using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 : Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/16 : based on interference
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/04 : TPC
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/14 : Separate analysis of uplink or downlink
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/243 : taking into account interferences
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/00 : Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/006 : with additional information processing, e.g. for direction or speed determination
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/0446 : Resources in time domain, e.g. slots or frames
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/0453 : Resources in frequency domain, e.g. a carrier in FDMA
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/52 : based on load
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/54 : based on quality criteria
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/541 : using the level of interference
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/542 : using measured or perceived quality

Abstract

A system that incorporates the subject disclosure may perform, for example, a method for receiving interference information, identifying a plurality of interferers, approximating a location of the plurality of interferers, and adjusting an antenna pattern of an antenna. The method can include determining traffic loads and adjusting the antenna pattern according to the traffic loads. Other embodiments are disclosed.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

obtaining, by a system comprising a processor, interference information according to at least one adaptive threshold for detecting signal interference in a plurality of resource blocks in a radio frequency spectrum of a wireless communication system providing communication services to a plurality of communication devices and having a plurality of base stations, wherein the interference is caused by a plurality of interferers external to the base stations, and wherein the interference information is provided to the system from the plurality of base stations;

correlating, by the system, the interference information to generate correlated information;

detecting, by the system, a plurality of interferers according to the correlated information;

determining, by the system, interferer locations for each of the plurality of interferers;

predicting, by the system and in accordance with the correlated information, recurrent interference caused by a detected interferer of the plurality of interferers; and

adjusting, by the system, a first antenna pattern of a first antenna of a first base station based on the interferer locations,

wherein the adjusting of the first antenna pattern changes a first coverage area of the first antenna to an adjusted first coverage area, and

wherein the adjusting of the first antenna pattern causes at least one interferer of the plurality of interferers to be located outside of the adjusted first coverage area of the first antenna.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the obtaining of the interference information is from the plurality of communication devices that are detecting the interference information according to the at least one adaptive threshold for detecting signal interference in the plurality of resource blocks in the radio frequency spectrum of the wireless communication system.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the adjusting of the first antenna pattern causes at least one communication device of the plurality of communication devices to change from utilizing the first base station to utilizing a second base station for the communication services.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the adjusting of the first antenna pattern is performed without the first base station filtering the signal interference.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the second base station experiences a decrease in the signal interference, and further comprising:

determining traffic loads associated with the first and second base stations, wherein the adjusting of the first antenna pattern is based on the determining of the traffic loads, and wherein the adjusting of the first antenna pattern causes a decrease in the traffic load at the first base station and an increase in the traffic load at the second base station.

6. The method of claim 5, comprising:

adjusting, by the system, a second antenna pattern of a second antenna of the second base station based on the interferer locations, wherein the adjusting of the second antenna pattern changes a second coverage area of the second antenna to an adjusted second coverage area, wherein the adjusting of the second antenna pattern causes at least one interferer of the plurality of interferers to be located outside of the adjusted second coverage area of the second antenna, and wherein the first coverage area of the first antenna of the first base station overlaps the second coverage area of the second antenna of the second base station.

7. The method of claim 1, comprising:

receiving, by the system, device location information from each of the plurality of communication devices, wherein the adjusting of the first antenna pattern is based on the device location information.

8. The method of claim 1, comprising:

identifying, by the system, a profile for each of the plurality of interferers that describes characteristics of each of the plurality of interferers; and

determining, by the system, a first temporal recurrence of a first interferer of the plurality of interferers according to the interference information associated with the first interferer,

wherein the profile of each of the plurality of interferers is generated by analyzing the signal interference associated with each of the plurality of interferers according to spectral shape, amplitude, phase, time of occurrence, frequency of occurrence, geographic location of occurrence, network traffic levels at a time of detection of the signal interference, or any combination thereof.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining of the interferer locations comprises:

determining temporal recurrences of the plurality of interferers;

estimating a location of each of the plurality of interferers based on device location information received from the plurality of communication devices that are detecting the interference information according to the at least one adaptive threshold; and

generating an interference map of the plurality of interferers according to the temporal recurrences and the estimating of the location of each of the plurality of interferers.

10. A system, comprising:

a memory to store instructions; and

a processor coupled to the memory, wherein execution of the instructions by the processor causes the processor to perform operations comprising;

obtaining interference information provided to the system according to at least one adaptive threshold for detecting signal interference in a plurality of segments of a radio frequency spectrum of a wireless communication system providing communication services and having a plurality of antennas at a plurality of antenna locations, wherein the interference is caused by a plurality of interferers external to the plurality of antenna locations;

generating an interference map for the plurality of interferers according to the interference information;

predicting, in accordance with the interference map, recurrent interference caused by a detected interferer of the plurality of interferers; and

adjusting a first antenna pattern of a first antenna at a first location of the plurality of antenna locations based on the interference map,

wherein the adjusting of the first antenna pattern changes a first coverage area of the first antenna to an adjusted first coverage area, and

wherein the adjusting of the first antenna pattern causes at least one interferer of the plurality of interferers to be located outside of the adjusted first coverage area of the first antenna.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the adjusting of the first antenna pattern causes at least one communication device to change from utilizing the first antenna to utilizing a second antenna at a second location of the plurality of antenna locations for accessing the communication services.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the first location comprises a first base station, wherein the second location comprises a second base station, and wherein each segment of the plurality of segments conforms to a long term evolution protocol.

13. The system of claim 10, wherein the obtaining of the interference information comprises receiving the interference information from a plurality of communication devices that are detecting the interference information in the plurality of segments of the radio frequency spectrum, and wherein the operations further comprise:

correlating the interference information of the plurality of communication devices to generate correlated information; and

detecting the plurality of interferers according to the correlated information, wherein the generating of the interference map is based on the correlated information.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the operations further comprise:

determining traffic loads associated with the first and second locations, wherein the adjusting of the first antenna pattern is based on the determining of the traffic loads, and wherein the adjusting of the first antenna pattern causes a decrease in the traffic load at the first location and an increase in the traffic load at the second location.

15. The system of claim 10, wherein the operations further comprise:

adjusting a second antenna pattern of the second antenna based on the interference map, wherein the adjusting of the second antenna pattern changes a second coverage area of the second antenna to an adjusted second coverage area, wherein the adjusting of the second antenna pattern causes at least one interferer of the plurality of interferers to be located outside of the adjusted second coverage area of the second antenna, and wherein the first coverage area of the first antenna overlaps the second coverage area of the second antenna.

16. The system of claim 10, wherein the operations further comprise:

determining temporal recurrences of the plurality of interferers; and

estimating a location of each of the plurality of interferers based on device location information received from a plurality of communication devices that are detecting the interference information according to the at least one adaptive threshold,

wherein the generating of the interference map is based on the temporal recurrences and the estimating of the location of each of the plurality of interferers.

17. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium, comprising instructions, which when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:

receiving interference information from each of a plurality of communication devices detecting interference information according to an adaptive threshold in a plurality of segments in a radio frequency spectrum of a wireless communication system providing communication services and having a plurality of antennas at a plurality of antenna locations, wherein the interference is caused by a plurality of interferers external to the plurality of antenna locations;

correlating the interference information of the plurality of communication devices to generate correlated information;

identifying a plurality of interferers according to the correlated information;

approximating a location of each of the plurality of interferers according to location information provided by the plurality of communication devices;

predicting, in accordance with the correlated information, recurrent interference caused by an identified interferer of the plurality of interferers; and

adjusting a first antenna pattern of a first antenna at a first location based on the approximating of the location of the plurality of interferers,

wherein the adjusting of the first antenna pattern changes a first coverage area of the first antenna to an adjusted first coverage area, and

wherein the adjusting of the first antenna pattern causes at least one interferer of the plurality of interferers to be located outside of the adjusted first coverage area of the first antenna.

18. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein the adjusting of the first antenna pattern causes at least one communication device to change from utilizing the first antenna to utilizing a second antenna at a second location for accessing the communication services.

19. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein the operations further comprise:

adjusting a second antenna pattern of the second antenna based on the approximating of the location of the plurality of interferers, wherein the adjusting of the second antenna pattern changes a second coverage area of the second antenna to an adjusted second coverage area, wherein the adjusting of the second antenna pattern causes at least one interferer of the plurality of interferers to be located outside of the adjusted second coverage area of the second antenna, and wherein the first coverage area of the first antenna overlaps the second coverage area of the second antenna.

20. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein the operations further comprise:

determining traffic loads associated with the first and second locations, wherein the adjusting of the first antenna pattern is based on the determining of the traffic loads, and wherein the adjusting of the first antenna pattern causes a decrease in the traffic load at the first location and an increase in the traffic load at the second location.