Scheduling method, apparatus, and system

• US 10,165,583 B2
• Filed: 06/13/2016
• Issued: 12/25/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 12/13/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: Fang, Zhipeng
• Primary Examiner(s): Choudhury, Faisal
• Application Number:
  US15/181,349
• Publication Number:
  US 20160295601A1
• Time in Patent Office: 925 Days
• Field of Search: 370329
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/086 among access entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/04 TPC
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/243 taking into account interferences
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/12 Wireless traffic scheduling

Abstract

A scheduling method, apparatus, and system are provided. The system includes at least one real scheduler and a centralized virtual scheduler. The centralized virtual scheduler is configured to determine transmit power of a first cell and send the transmit power determined by the determining unit to a real scheduler corresponding to the first cell, so as to instruct the real scheduler corresponding to the first cell to schedule UE in the first cell by using the transmit power determined by the centralized virtual scheduler. Therefore, by using a layered scheduling architecture according to the present application, an upper-layer centralized virtual scheduler instructs, by performing comprehensive coordination on transmit power of multiple cells, a lower-layer real scheduler to schedule UE by using the transmit power coordinated by the centralized virtual scheduler. This can reduce inter-cell interference and improve overall network performance.

Claims

1. A centralized virtual scheduler for a communications system that comprises multiple cells, each cell in the multiple cells corresponding to one real scheduler, wherein the centralized virtual scheduler comprises:

a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having processor-executable instructions stored thereon; and

a processor, configured to execute the processor-executable instructions to facilitate;

determining transmit power of a first cell of the multiple cells in the communications system; and

sending the transmit power of the first cell to a real scheduler corresponding to the first cell, so as to instruct the real scheduler corresponding to the first cell to schedule user equipment in the first cell based on the transmit power;

wherein the multiple cells are grouped into at least one cluster, and transmit power of each cell in each cluster is determined on a cluster-by-cluster basis;

wherein determining the transmit power of the first cell further comprises;

obtaining first channel information and first historical scheduling information, wherein the first channel information and the first historical scheduling information respectively comprise channel information and historical scheduling information of all cells in a cluster to which the first cell belongs;

calculating, according to the first channel information and the first historical scheduling information, network utility values of the first cell under multiple power candidates; and

selecting a power candidate with an optimal network utility value as the transmit power of the first cell.

2. The centralized virtual scheduler according to claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to execute the processor-executable instructions to facilitate:

determining transmit power on each resource block (RB) unit of the first cell, wherein each RB unit comprises a physical resource block (PRB) or a resource block group (RBG); and

sending the transmit power on each RB unit of the first cell to the real scheduler corresponding to the first cell, so as to instruct the real scheduler corresponding to the first cell to schedule the user equipment on each RB unit of the first cell based on the transmit power.

3. The centralized virtual scheduler according to claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to execute the processor-executable instructions to facilitate:

obtaining first load information, wherein the first load information comprises load information of all cells in the cluster to which the first cell belongs;

determining a load balancing result according to the first load information, wherein the load balancing result is that the first cell schedules edge user equipment of a second cell, wherein the first cell and the second cell are neighboring cells in the cluster to which the first cell belongs; and

sending the load balancing result to the real scheduler corresponding to the first cell, so as to instruct the real scheduler corresponding to the first cell to schedule the edge user equipment of the second cell.

4. The centralized virtual scheduler according to claim 1, wherein the communications system is in a distributed base station networking mode and a coordinator is deployed in the communications system, wherein base stations in the communications system are connected with the coordinator, wherein the real scheduler corresponding to each cell is located in a base station corresponding to the cell, and wherein the centralized virtual scheduler is located in the coordinator.

5. The centralized virtual scheduler according to claim 1, wherein baseband processing units (BBUs) of the communications system are placed together, wherein the real scheduler corresponding to each cell in the multiple cells is located in a BBU corresponding to the cell, and wherein the centralized virtual scheduler is located in a BBU of the BBUs that are placed together.

6. A centralized virtual scheduler for a communications system that comprises multiple cells, each cell in the multiple cells corresponding to one real scheduler, wherein the centralized virtual scheduler comprises:

a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having processor-executable instructions stored thereon; and

a processor, configured to execute the processor-executable instructions to facilitate;

determining transmit power of a first cell of the multiple cells in the communications system; and

sending the transmit power of the first cell to a real scheduler corresponding to the first cell, so as to instruct the real scheduler corresponding to the first cell to schedule user equipment in the first cell based on the transmit power;

wherein the multiple cells are grouped into at least one cluster, and transmit power of each cell in each cluster is determined on a cluster-by-cluster basis;

wherein determining the transmit power of the first cell further comprises;

obtaining first channel information and first historical scheduling information, wherein the first channel information and the first historical scheduling information respectively comprise channel information and historical scheduling information of all cells in a cluster to which the first cell belongs;

calculating, according to the first channel information and the first historical scheduling information, network utility values of each resource block (RB) unit of the first cell under multiple power candidates; and

selecting a power candidate with an optimal network utility value as transmit power for each RB unit.

7. A centralized virtual scheduler for a communications system that comprises multiple cells, each cell in the multiple cells corresponding to one real scheduler, wherein the centralized virtual scheduler comprises:

a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having processor-executable instructions stored thereon; and

a processor, configured to execute the processor-executable instructions to facilitate;

determining transmit power of a first cell of the multiple cells in the communications system; and

sending the transmit power of the first cell to a real scheduler corresponding to the first cell, so as to instruct the real scheduler corresponding to the first cell to schedule user equipment in the first cell based on the transmit power;

wherein the multiple cells are grouped into at least one cluster, and transmit power of each cell in each cluster is determined on a cluster-by-cluster basis;

wherein the processor is further configured to execute the processor-executable instructions to facilitate;

obtaining first load information, wherein the first load information comprises load information of all cells in the cluster to which the first cell belongs;

determining a load balancing result according to the first load information, wherein the load balancing result is that the first cell schedules edge user equipment of a second cell, wherein the first cell and the second cell are neighboring cells in the cluster to which the first cell belongs; and

sending the load balancing result to the real scheduler corresponding to the first cell, so as to instruct the real scheduler corresponding to the first cell to schedule the edge user equipment of the second cell;

wherein the processor is further configured to execute the processor-executable instructions to facilitate;

sending a measurement request message to a real scheduler corresponding to a third cell in a downlink receive frame number and subframe number;

receiving, in an uplink transmit frame number and subframe number, a measurement response message from the real scheduler corresponding to the third cell, wherein a round trip time (RTT) of the real scheduler corresponding to the third cell is a largest RTT in the multiple cells in the communications system, wherein the RTT indicates a difference between the uplink transmit frame number and subframe number and the downlink receive frame number and subframe number;

determining a start time according to the RTT of the real scheduler corresponding to the third cell; and

sending the start time to the real scheduler corresponding to the first cell to facilitate the real scheduler corresponding to the first cell scheduling the user equipment at the start time.

8. A real scheduler for a communications system that comprises multiple cells, each cell in the multiple cells corresponding to one real scheduler, wherein the real scheduler comprises:

a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having processor-executable instructions stored thereon; and

a processor, configured to execute the processor-executable instructions to facilitate;

receiving transmit power of a first cell, which is determined by a centralized virtual scheduler, wherein the first cell is a cell of the multiple cells in the communications system; and

scheduling user equipment in the first cell based on the transmit power determined by the centralized virtual scheduler;

wherein the communications system is in a distributed base station networking mode and a coordinator is deployed in the communications system, wherein base stations in the communications system are connected with the coordinator, wherein the real scheduler corresponding to each cell in the multiple cells is located in a base station corresponding to the cell, and wherein the centralized virtual scheduler is located in the coordinator;

wherein the processor is further configured to execute the processor-executable instructions to facilitate;

receiving, in a downlink receive frame number and subframe number, a measurement request message from the centralized virtual scheduler;

sending, in an uplink transmit frame number and subframe number, a measurement response message to the centralized virtual scheduler to enable the centralized virtual scheduler to obtain a round trip time (RTT) of the real scheduler according to the uplink transmit frame number and subframe number and the downlink receive frame number and subframe number, select a largest RTT from all RTTs of the multiple cells in the communications system, and determine a start time according to the largest RTT, wherein the RTT indicates a difference between the uplink transmit frame number and subframe number and the downlink receive frame number and subframe number;

receiving the start time from the centralized virtual scheduler; and

scheduling the user equipment at the start time.

9. The real scheduler according to claim 8, wherein the processor is further configured to execute the processor-executable instructions to facilitate:

receiving transmit power that is on each resource block (RB) unit of the first cell, which is determined by the centralized virtual scheduler, wherein each RB unit comprises a physical resource block (PRB) or a resource block group (RBG); and

scheduling the user equipment on each RB unit of the first cell based on the transmit power determined by the centralized virtual scheduler.

10. The real scheduler according to claim 8, wherein the processor is further configured to execute the processor-executable instructions to facilitate:

receiving a load balancing result determined by the centralized virtual scheduler, wherein the load balancing result is that the first cell schedules edge user equipment of a second cell, wherein the first cell and the second cell are neighboring cells in the multiple cells and are located in a same cluster; and

scheduling the edge user equipment of the second cell according to the load balancing result.

11. The real scheduler according to claim 8, wherein baseband processing units (BBUs) of the communications system are placed together, wherein the real scheduler corresponding to each cell in the multiple cells is located in a BBU corresponding to the cell, and wherein the centralized virtual scheduler is located in any BBU of the BBUs that are placed together.