Non-circular paging areas

• US 7,751,835 B2
• Filed: 10/04/2005
• Issued: 07/06/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 10/04/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ericsson Evdo, Inc. (CommScope Holding Company, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Airvana Incorporated (CommScope Holding Company, Inc.)
• Inventors: Sharma, Vivek, Chawla, Rajeev, Das, Champak, Palnati, Prasasth R., Barabell, Arthur J.
• Primary Examiner(s): MEHRPOUR, NAGHMEH
• Application Number:
  US11/243,405
• Publication Number:
  US 20070077948A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,736 Days
• Field of Search: 455/446, 455/450, 455/451, 455/452.1, 455/437, 455/458, 455/405, 455/67.6, 455/33.1, 455/33.2, 370/241, 370/254, 370/342, 370/13, 370/18, 370/60.1
• US Class Current: 455/458
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/00 Network planning, e.g. coverage or traffic planning tools; Network deployment, e.g. resource partitioning or cells structures
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 68/00 User notification, e.g. alerting and paging, for incoming communication, change of service or the like

Abstract

In a radio access network, techniques for defining a non-circular paging area in which an access terminal is to be paged based on distance-based location updating information for a sector of the network.

Claims

1. A method performed by a radio node controller in a radio access network, the method comprising:

retrieving information defining a non-circular paging area for a paging reference sector, the information being based on second information associated with the paging reference sector; and

identifying one or more sectors of the radio access network overlapping the non-circular paging area from which an access terminal is to be paged.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the second information comprises:

a location value and a distance value associated with the paging reference sector.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the non-circular paging area encompasses at least a circle having a center corresponding to the location value and a radius corresponding to the distance value.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the location value comprises a longitude co-ordinate and a latitude co-ordinate associated with the paging reference sector.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the distance value represents a distance from the location value.

6. The method of claim 2, wherein the non-circular paging area has a size that is based on the distance value associated with the paging reference sector.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a route update message from the access terminal; and

based on the route update message, designating a sector of the radio access network as being the paging reference sector.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the information is retrieved from a data store.

9. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

sending a paging message to each of the one or more sectors overlapping the non-circular paging area so as to initiate a page of the access terminal by each of the one or more sectors, wherein each of the one or more sectors has a corresponding longitude co-ordinate, a corresponding latitude co-ordinate, and a corresponding portion of coverage area that overlaps with the non-circular paging area; and

wherein for each of the one or more sectors, the corresponding longitude and latitude co-ordinates are within the non-circular paging area.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

maintaining location value information for sectors of the radio access network.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the maintaining comprises:

maintaining an ordered list in which the location value information for the sectors are ordered along longitude and latitude values.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a route update message from the access terminal; and

based on the route update message, designating sectors of the radio access network as being the corresponding paging reference sectors.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the information is retrieved from a data store;

and

wherein generating the non-circular super paging area comprises;

generating the non-circular super paging area using the information.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

sending a paging message to each of the one or more sectors overlapping the non-circular super paging area so as to initiate a page of the access terminal by each of the one or more sectors, wherein each of the one or more sectors has a corresponding longitude co-ordinate, a corresponding latitude co-ordinate, and a corresponding portion of coverage area that overlaps with the non-circular super paging area; and

wherein for each of the one or more sectors, the corresponding longitude and latitude co-ordinates are within the non-circular paging area.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the information defining the non-circular paging area comprises a set of values, each value representing a side of the non-circular paging area.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the non-circular paging area comprises a square-shaped paging area.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the information defining the non-circular paging area is determined based on a curvature of the surface of the earth.

23. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

retrieving additional information defining additional non-circular paging areas for additional corresponding paging reference sectors, the information being based on additional second information respectively associated with the additional corresponding paging reference sectors; and

identifying, for each of the additional non-circular paging areas, one or more additional sectors of the radio access network overlapping the additional non-circular paging area from which the access terminal is to be paged.

29. The method of claim 7, wherein the route update message is received from the access terminal via a packet data serving node.

30. The method of claim 12, wherein the route update message is received from the access terminal via a packet data serving node.

18. A computer-readable medium that stores executable instructions for use at a radio node controller of a radio access network, the instructions for causing the radio node controller to:

retrieve information defining a non-circular paging area for a paging reference sector, the information being based on second information associated with the paging reference sector; and

identify one or more sectors of the radio access network overlapping the non-circular paging area from which an access terminal is to be paged.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 18, further comprising instructions to cause the machine to:

designate a sector of the radio access network as being the paging reference sector based on a route update message received from the access terminal; and

send a paging message to each of the one or more sectors overlapping the non-circular paging area so as to initiate a page of the access terminal by each of the one or more sectors, wherein each of the one or more sectors has a corresponding longitude co-ordinate, a corresponding latitude co-ordinate, and a corresponding portion of coverage area that overlaps with the non-circular paging area; and

wherein for each of the one or more sectors, the corresponding longitude and latitude co-ordinates are within the non-circular paging area.

20. A method performed by a radio network controller in a radio access network, the method comprising:

selecting sectors as lying within a non-circular paging area for a paging reference sector when an incoming call is detected; and

paging an access terminal from the radio access network in the sectors.

21. A method performed by a radio network controller in a radio access network, the method comprising:

identifying sectors and designating the sectors as paging reference sectors;

defining a non-circular super paging area to encompass non-circular paging areas corresponding to the paging reference sectors;

selecting a first set of sectors overlapping the non-circular super paging area when an incoming call is detected by comparing positional values of a second set of sectors with boundaries of the non-circular super paging area, the second set of sectors comprising at least the first set of sectors; and

paging the access terminal from the first set of sectors.

31. The method of claim 21, wherein the non-circular paging areas are defined by information, the information being determined based on second information respectively associated with the paging reference sectors.

22. A radio access network comprising a packet data serving node, a radio node controller and at least one radio node, said radio access network configured to:

receive, from an access terminal, a route update message;

designate a paging reference sector based on the received message;

retrieve information defining a non-circular paging area of the paging reference sector;

identify one or more sectors that overlap the non-circular paging area; and

page the access terminal from the one or more sectors when an incoming call is detected at the packet data serving node.

24. A method performed by a radio node controller in a radio access network, the method comprising:

retrieving information defining non-circular paging areas for corresponding paging reference sectors, the information being based on corresponding second information respectively associated with the corresponding paging reference sectors;

generating a non-circular super paging area of the corresponding paging reference sectors, the non-circular super paging area comprising a union of the non-circular paging areas; and

identifying one or more sectors of the radio access network overlapping the non-circular super paging area from which an access terminal is to be paged.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the information defining the non-circular paging areas comprises corresponding sets of values, wherein for each non-circular paging area, each value of the corresponding set of values represents a side of the non-circular super paging area.

26. The method of claim 24, wherein the non-circular super paging area comprises a square-shaped super paging area.

27. The method of claim 24, wherein the non-circular super paging area comprises a rectangular-shaped super paging area.

28. The method of claim 24, wherein the information defining the non-circular paging areas is determined based on a curvature of the surface of the earth.