System and method of cell outage compensation in cellular systems

• US 9,363,727 B2
• Filed: 10/29/2013
• Issued: 06/07/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 11/01/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Chou, Joey, Mena, Jorge
• Primary Examiner(s): Demeter, Hilina K
• Application Number:
  US14/124,457
• Publication Number:
  US 20140295856A1
• Time in Patent Office: 952 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0417 Feedback systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0452 Multi-user MIMO systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/0626 Channel coefficients, e.g. channel state information [CSI]
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 11/00 Orthogonal multiplex systems, e.g. using WALSH codesH04J13/00 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 11/0023 Interference mitigation or co-ordination direct sequence spread spectrum [DSSS] systems H04B1/7097; frequency hopping H04B1/713; allocation criteria for ingress interference avoidance H04L5/0062; frequency allocation criteria for requirements on out-of-channel emissions H04L5/0066; arrangements for removing intersymbol interference or baseband equalisers H04L25/03006; peak power aspects in multicarrier modulation H04L27/2614; power management H04W52/00; traffic scheduling H04W72/54, H04W72/541
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 3/0614 the synchronising signal being characterised by the amplitude, duration or polarity
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0027 Scheduling of signalling, e.g. occurrence thereof
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2101/375 Access point names [APN]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0046 Determination of how many bits are transmitted on different sub-channels
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/0048 Allocation of pilot signals, i.e. of signals known to the receiver
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/006 Quality of the received signal, e.g. BER, SNR, water filling
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/3005 Mechanisms for avoiding name conflicts
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/104 Peer-to-peer [P2P] networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/20 for indoor coverage or short range network deployment
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/24 Cell structures
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/26 Cell enhancers or enhancement, e.g. for tunnels, building shadow
• 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 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 28/0268 : using specific QoS parameters for wireless networks, e.g. QoS class identifier [QCI] or guaranteed bit rate [GBR] negotiating SLA or negotiating QoS H04W28/24
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/04 : Error control
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/24 : Negotiating SLA [Service Level Agreement]; Negotiating QoS [Quality of Service]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/20 : for optimising the interference level
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/70 : Services for machine-to-machine communication [M2M] or machine type communication [MTC]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0216 : using a pre-established activity schedule, e.g. traffic indication frame
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0235 : where the received signal is a power saving command
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 60/04 : using triggered events
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/003 : locating network equipment
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/0446 : Resources in time domain, e.g. slots or frames
• 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 72/54 : based on quality criteria
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/542 : using measured or perceived quality
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/563 : of the wireless resources
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 74/0858 : collision detection
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/14 : Direct-mode setup
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/27 : Transitions between radio resource control [RRC] states
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/28 : Discontinuous transmission [DTX]; Discontinuous reception [DRX]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/005 : Discovery of network devices, e.g. terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/02 : Terminal devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/06 : adapted for operation in multiple networks or having at least two operational modes, e.g. multi-mode terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/08 : Access point devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/16 : Gateway arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 : in wireless communication networks

Abstract

Disclosed in some examples are systems, methods, and machine-readable mediums in which the COC functionality is enhanced to provide for compensation of both a first cell that experiences an outage and a second cell that is being compensated for by the first cell upon an identified outage of the first cell. In some examples, messaging fields for messaging interfaces and database fields are modified to allow the compensation state of the first cell to be determined and/or saved.

Claims

1. An eNodeB comprising:

a memory;

at least one processor; and

software, included in the memory and executed by the at least one processor, configured to;

identify a cell outage of a neighboring cell;

reconfigure a cell provided by the eNodeB to compensate for the neighboring cell responsive to identification of the cell outage of the neighboring cell;

modify a cell compensation status state for the cell provided by the eNodeB to cOCCompensating to indicate that the cell is compensating for the neighboring cell; and

generate a notification to a management entity to indicate that the cell compensation status state has changed,

wherein the cell compensation status state is indicated in the notification in a cOCStatus attribute of an Information Object Class (IOC), the cOCStatus attribute indicating a cell compensation status state selected from the cOCCompensating state, a cOCActivating state to indicate that cell outage compensation was starting to compensate for the cell, a cOCActive state to indicate that the cell is being compensated for, a cOCDeactivating state to indicate that activities to remove the compensation of the cell are complete, and a cOCDeactive state to indicate a default state of no compensation for the cell.

2. The eNodeB of claim 1, wherein the software is further configured to send the notification across an Interface N (Itf-N).

3. The eNodeB of claim 1, wherein the notification is sent to an IRPManager.

4. The eNodeB of claim 1, wherein the neighboring cell is a neighboring cell to compensate for a second neighboring cell, and wherein software is further configured to reconfigure the cell to compensate for at least part of the neighboring cell and the second neighboring cell.

5. The eNodeB of claim 1, wherein the software is further configured to identify the cell outage based upon a message received over an Itf-N interface.

6. The eNodeB of claim 1, wherein the software is further configured to:

identify a cell outage of the cell while the cell outage of the neighboring cell is occurring;

reconfigure another cell provided by the eNodeB to compensate for the cell, while the cell outage of the neighboring cell is occurring, responsive to identification of the cell outage of the cell, taking into account that the neighboring cell is being compensating for by the cell, based on cell compensation status state of the cell;

modify a cell compensation status state for the other cell provided by the eNodeB to cOCCompensating to indicate that the other cell is compensating for the cell and modify the cell compensation status state for the cell provided by the eNodeB to the cOCActive state; and

generate a notification to the management entity to indicate that the cell compensation status state of the cell and a notification to the management entity to indicate that the cell compensation status state of the other cell has changed,

wherein each notification comprises the cOCStatus attribute of the IOC.

7. A machine readable non-transitory storage medium, including instructions, which when performed by a machine, cause the machine to perform the operations comprising:

identifying an ongoing cell outage of a neighboring cell based upon a message received from a management component;

modifying an operating parameter of a cell provided by an eNodeB to compensate for the neighboring cell responsive to identifying an ongoing cell outage of the neighboring cell;

updating a cell compensation status state for the cell provided by the eNodeB to cOCCompensating to indicate that the cell is compensating for the neighboring cell; and

notifying a management entity indicating that the cell compensation status state has changed, wherein the cell compensation status state is indicated in a notification in a cOCStatus attribute of an Information Object Class (IOC), the cOCStatus attribute indicating a cell compensation status state selected from the cOCCompensating state, a cOCActivating state to indicate that cell outage compensation was starting to compensate for the cell, a cOCActive state to indicate that the cell is being compensated for, a cOCDeactivating state to indicate that activities to remove the compensation of the cell are complete, and a cOCDeactive state to indicate a default state of no compensation for the cell.

8. The machine readable non-transitory storage medium of claim 7, wherein the neighboring cell is a neighboring cell compensating for a second neighboring cell, and wherein the instructions for modifying the operating parameter of the cell include instructions, which when performed by the machine, cause the machine to perform the operations of modifying the cell to compensate for at least part of the neighboring cell and the second neighboring cell.

9. The machine readable non-transitory storage medium of claim 7, wherein the message received from the management component is received over an Itf-N interface.

10. The machine readable non-transitory storage medium of claim 9, wherein the message is a message indicating that the cell provided by the eNodeB is to be reconfigured to compensate for the neighboring cell.

11. A network management entity comprising:

at least one processor; and

software, executed via the at least one processor, to;

detect an ongoing cell outage for a first cell in a wireless network;

determine a reconfiguration of a second cell to compensate for the cell outage;

send a request to a network node controlling the second cell to compensate for the cell outage of the first cell; and

receive a notification from the network node controlling the second cell indicating that an attribute of a database associated with the second cell has changed to cOCCompensating to indicate that the second cell is compensating for the cell outage of the first cell,

wherein the attribute is indicated in the notification and is a cOCStatus attribute of an Information Object Class (IOC), the cOCStatus attribute selected from cOCCompensating, cOCActivating to indicate that cell outage compensation was starting to compensate for the second cell, cOCActive to indicate that the second cell is being compensated for, cOCDeactivating to indicate that activities to remove the compensation of the second cell are complete, and a cOCDeactive state to indicate a default state of no compensation for the second cell.

12. The network management entity of claim 11 wherein the software is further configured to determine the presence of an outage at the second cell.

13. The network management entity of claim 12, wherein the software is further configured to query the second cell to determine that the second cell is compensating for the first cell.

14. The network management entity of claim 13, wherein the software is further configured to determine one or more other cells to compensate for the first and second cells.

15. The network management entity of claim 11, wherein the network management entity and the network node controlling the second cell communicate using an ITF-N interface.

16. The network management entity of claim 11, wherein the network node controlling the second cell is an eNodeB.

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

detecting an ongoing cell outage for a first cell in a wireless network;

determining a reconfiguration of a second cell to compensate for the cell outage;

sending a request to a network node controlling the second cell to compensate for the cell outage of the first cell; and

receiving a notification from the network node controlling the second cell indicating that an attribute of a database associated with the second cell has changed to cOCCompensating to indicate that the second cell is compensating for the cell outage of the first cell,

wherein the attribute is indicated in the notification and is a cOCStatus attribute of an Information Object Class (IOC), the cOCStatus attribute selected from cOCCompensating, cOCActivating to indicate that cell outage compensation was starting to compensate for the second cell, cOCActive to indicate that the second cell is being compensated for, cOCDeactivating to indicate that activities to remove the compensation of the second cell are complete, and a cOCDeactive state to indicate a default state of no compensation for the second cell.

18. The machine readable non-transitory storage medium of claim 17, wherein the operations further comprise:

determining the presence of an outage at the second cell.

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

querying the second cell to determine that the second cell is compensating for the first cell.

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

determining one or more other cells to compensate for the first and second cells.

21. The machine readable non-transitory storage medium of claim 17, wherein the network management entity and the network node controlling the second cell communicate using an ITF-N interface.

22. The machine readable non-transitory storage medium of claim 17, wherein the network node controlling the second cell is an eNodeB.