Conditional range expansion in a heterogeneous telecommunications system
First Claim
1. A method for use in a heterogeneous telecommunications system, said heterogeneous telecommunications system comprising a macro base station and a low-power base station, the low-power base station having a coverage which is extendible by range expansion (RE) to serve a user equipment that would otherwise have been served by the macro base station, the method comprising, in either of the macro base station or the low-power base station:
- obtaining information about radio conditions of the user equipment at least with respect to the macro base station;
determining, based on the obtained information, whether a criterion for conditional range expansion is satisfied, said criterion being related to an uplink transmission power of the user equipment to the macro base station; and
applying range expansion for the user equipment only when the criterion is satisfied, wherein applying range expansion for the user equipment involves sending a control message to the user equipment, said control message causes the user equipment to apply a certain offset to a received downlink signal strength for the low-power base station so as to change a low-power base station'"'"'s uptake area in a user equipment'"'"'s cell-selecting mechanism, further wherein the offset applied to the received downlink signal strength for the low-power base station has a positive value, which serves to increase the low-power base station'"'"'s uptake area compared to a case where no offset is applied.
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Abstract
A method is disclosed for use in a heterogeneous telecommunications system of the kind comprising a macro base station and a low-power base station, the low-power base station having a coverage which is extendible by range expansion, RE, to serve a user equipment which would otherwise have been served by the macro base station. According to the method, which is performed in either of the macro base station or the low-power base station, information about radio conditions of the user equipment at least with respect to the macro base station is obtained (310). Based on the obtained information, it is determined (320) whether a criterion for conditional range expansion is satisfied, said criterion being related to the uplink transmission power of the user equipment to the macro base station. Accordingly, range expansion is applied (330) for the user equipment only when the criterion is satisfied. A corresponding base station, telecommunications system and computer readable storage medium are also disclosed.
24 Citations
20 Claims
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1. A method for use in a heterogeneous telecommunications system, said heterogeneous telecommunications system comprising a macro base station and a low-power base station, the low-power base station having a coverage which is extendible by range expansion (RE) to serve a user equipment that would otherwise have been served by the macro base station, the method comprising, in either of the macro base station or the low-power base station:
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obtaining information about radio conditions of the user equipment at least with respect to the macro base station; determining, based on the obtained information, whether a criterion for conditional range expansion is satisfied, said criterion being related to an uplink transmission power of the user equipment to the macro base station; and applying range expansion for the user equipment only when the criterion is satisfied, wherein applying range expansion for the user equipment involves sending a control message to the user equipment, said control message causes the user equipment to apply a certain offset to a received downlink signal strength for the low-power base station so as to change a low-power base station'"'"'s uptake area in a user equipment'"'"'s cell-selecting mechanism, further wherein the offset applied to the received downlink signal strength for the low-power base station has a positive value, which serves to increase the low-power base station'"'"'s uptake area compared to a case where no offset is applied. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. A base station for use in a telecommunications system which comprises a macro base station and a low-power base station, the low-power base station having a coverage which is extendible by range expansion (RE) to serve a user equipment which would otherwise have been served by the macro base station, wherein said base station comprises:
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a memory for storing instructions and data; a radio-frequency interface for communicating with said user equipment; and a controller, wherein the controller is configured to; obtain information about radio conditions of the user equipment at least with respect to the macro base station; determine, based on the obtained information, whether a criterion for conditional range expansion is satisfied, said criterion being related to an uplink transmission power of the user equipment to the macro base station; apply range expansion for the user equipment only when the criterion is satisfied; receive one or more power headroom reports from the user equipment; estimate an uplink received signal to interference and noise ratio (SINR) or signal to noise ratio (SNR) for uplink between the user equipment and the macro base station, based on the one or more power headroom reports and a scheduled bandwidth of the user equipment; and determine that said criterion for conditional range expansion is satisfied, if the estimated SINR or SNR fails to reach a predefined threshold value (SINRmax_MCS) representing maximum modulation and coding scheme (MCS). - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19)
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20. A non-transitory computer-readable medium encoded with computer program instructions that, when loaded and executed by a processor of either a macro base station or a low-power base station in a heterogeneous telecommunications system, the low-power base station having a coverage which is extendible by range expansion (RE) to serve a user equipment that would otherwise have been served by the macro base station, causes the macro base station or the low-power base station to:
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obtain information about radio conditions of the user equipment at least with respect to the macro base station; determine, based on the obtained information, whether a criterion for conditional range expansion is satisfied, said criterion being related to an uplink transmission power of the user equipment to the macro base station; apply range expansion for the user equipment only when the criterion is satisfied; receive one or more power headroom reports from the user equipment; estimate an uplink received signal to interference and noise ratio (SINR) or signal to noise ratio (SNR) for uplink between the user equipment and the macro base station, based on the one or more power headroom reports and a scheduled bandwidth of the user equipment; and determine that said criterion for conditional range expansion is satisfied, if the estimated SINR or SNR fails to reach a predefined threshold value (SINRmax_MCS) representing maximum modulation and coding scheme (MCS).
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Specification