Management of a Hybrid Communication Network Comprising a Cellular Network and a Local Network

• US 20100284388A1
• Filed: 12/28/2007
• Published: 11/11/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/28/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Telecom Italia S.p.A.
• Original Assignee: Telecom Italia S.p.A.
• Inventors: Fantini, Roberto, Gallo, Paolo, Ruscitto, Alfredo
• Granted Patent: US 8,913,590 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/338
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 5/006 Quality of the received signal, e.g. BER, SNR, water filling
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/60 Scheduling or organising the servicing of application requests, e.g. requests for application data transmissions using the analysis and optimisation of the required network resources admission control or resource allocation H04L47/70
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/0236 radio quality, e.g. interference, losses or delay
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/18 Negotiating wireless communication parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/08 based on transmission power
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/12 based on transmission quality or channel quality
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/18 Selecting a network or a communication service
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/54 based on quality criteria

Abstract

Disclosed herein is a method of managing a hybrid network including a cellular network and a local network wherein a number of dual mode mobile terminals are connectable to a base station of the cellular network through a direct cellular link and are also connectable, one with respect to the other, through the local network by a radio access technique. The method includes the steps of computing a cost associated with a direct connection established along a path (A) extending from a selected mobile terminal to the base station through the cellular link only, computing a cost (C_cg) associated with at least one indirect connection established along a path (B) extending from the selected mobile terminal to the base station through the local network and the cellular network, and selecting for data transmission the path that minimizes the cost.

Claims

1. A method of managing a hybrid network including a cellular network and a local network wherein a number of dual mode mobile terminals are connectable to a base station of said cellular network through direct cellular links and are also connectable, one with respect to the other, through said local network by a radio access technique, the method comprising:

computing a cost associated with a direct connection established along a path extending from a selected mobile terminal to said base station through a cellular link only;

computing a cost (C_cg) associated with at least one indirect connection established along a path extending from said selected mobile terminal to said base station through said local network and said cellular network; and

selecting for data transmission one path based on the computed costs.

2. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the step of selecting for data transmission one path comprises the step of selecting for data transmission the path that minimizes the cost.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein computing the cost associated with a direct connection comprises computing one or a combination of the following:

received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) measured at the input of the particular mobile terminal;

throughput; and

/or

received power level of some reference channels transmitted by the base station to the mobile terminal in question.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a number of different candidate paths extending along said local network from said selected mobile terminal to respective candidate gateway mobile terminals communicating with said base station through said cellular network; and

defining for each candidate path a respective cost (Ccg); and

selecting one candidate path based on its cost.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein defining a number of different candidate paths is based on the use of an algorithm that takes into consideration at least one of the following:

finding the paths having a minimum overall air-time cost from the selected mobile terminal to all the other mobile terminals;

or

taking into consideration the maximum number (NH) of hops that are allowed in the local network along the indirect path.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein said algorithm is the Dijkstra algorithm.

7. The method of claim 4, wherein the cost of said candidate path takes into consideration at least one of the following factors:

the quality of the cellular link between the base station and the candidate gateway mobile terminal of the candidate path;

the quality of all links involved in the local network along the candidate path;

the number (N_H) of hops in the local network along the candidate path; and

the amount of power (P_avail) that is available in the base station in the current cell load condition.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the cost is computed based on a cost function where settable weight are attributed to said factors.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the cost function is expressed as:

10. Hybrid network comprising a cellular network and a local network wherein a number of dual mode mobile terminals are connectable to a base station of said cellular network through direct cellular links and are also connectable, one with respect to the other, through said local network by means of a radio access technique;

the network comprising a hybrid network manager configured for;

computing a cost associated with a direct connection established along a path (A) extending from a selected mobile terminal to said base station through a cellular link only;

computing a cost (Ccg) associated with at least one indirect connection established along a path (B) extending from said selected mobile terminal to said base station through said local network and said cellular network; and

selecting for data transmission one path based on the computed costs.