Method and apparatus for neighbor cell configuration and method and apparatus for femtocell base station configuration

• US 8,331,939 B2
• Filed: 06/24/2011
• Issued: 12/11/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/26/2008
• 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: Chen, Xin
• Primary Examiner(s): Hu, Jinsong
• Assistant Examiner(s): Shen, Qun
• Application Number:
  US13/168,278
• Publication Number:
  US 20110250890A1
• Time in Patent Office: 536 Days
• Field of Search: 455/436, 455/449, 455/444, 455/446, 370/331
• US Class Current: 455/436
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/0061 of neighbour cell information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/045 using private Base Stations, e.g. femto Base Stations, home Node B

Abstract

The present invention discloses a method and an apparatus for neighbor cell configuration and a method and an apparatus for femtocell base station configuration. The neighbor cell configuration method includes: obtaining information of at least one macro cell; obtaining neighbor cell information of the at least one macro cell; and performing neighbor cell configuration according to the information of the at least one macro cell and the neighbor cell information. With the method and apparatus for neighbor cell configuration and the method and apparatus for femtocell base station configuration, complete femtocell base station neighbor cell information is obtained so that a femtocell base station can be configured automatically. This avoids call drops during handovers and increases the success rate of handovers, and the implementation is easy.

Claims

1. A neighbor cell configuration method, comprising:

obtaining, by a femtocell base station, information of at least one macro cell through demodulating radio signals detected by a receiver;

obtaining, by the femtocell base station, neighbor cell information of the at least one macro cell;

generating, by the femtocell base station, a neighbor cell configuration list through adding the information of the at least one macro cell and all or part of the neighbor cell information of the at least one macro cell to the neighbor cell configuration list; and

performing, by the femtocell base station, neighbor cell configuration according to the neighbor cell configuration list;

optimizing, by the femtocell base station, the neighbor cell configuration list if the number of neighbor cells in the neighbor cell configuration list is above a predetermined threshold; and

performing, by the femtocell base station, neighbor cell configuration according to the optimized neighbor cell configuration list;

wherein the optimizing comprises;

setting a neighbor cell optimization condition, the neighbor cell optimization condition comprising an optimization time T and the number of handovers N;

generating a target cell list through collecting target cells included in a relocation message used for a handover of a UE in a given time T1; and

comparing the neighbor cell configuration list and the target cell list and deleting cells which are in the neighbor cell configuration list and are not target cells in the target cell list to generate an optimized neighbor cell configuration list, when the neighbor cell optimization condition is satisfied, which is that the given time T1 for collecting the target cells reaches the optimization time T and the number of handovers M equals to the number of handovers N wherein the number of handovers M is calculated by adding up handovers of UEs within the given time T1.

2. The neighbor cell configuration method of claim 1, wherein the obtaining, by the femtocell base station, the neighbor cell information of the at least one macro cell further comprises:

parsing, by the femtocell base station, system information of the at least one macro cell to obtain the neighbor cell information of the at least one macro cell;

or

querying, by the femtocell base station, a database of a macro cell base station in the at least one macro cell to obtain the neighbor cell information of the at least one macro cell;

or

performing, by the femtocell base station, neighbor cell selection by using a planning tool to obtain the neighbor cell information of the at least one macro cell.

3. The neighbor cell configuration method of claim 2, wherein the parsing, by the femtocell base station, the system information of the at least one macro cell to obtain the neighbor cell information of the at least one macro cell further comprises:

parsing the system information of the at least one macro cell to obtain measurement control system information;

parsing intra-frequency measurement system information in the measurement control system information to obtain intra-frequency neighbor cell information of the at least one macro cell;

parsing inter-frequency measurement system information in the measurement control system information to obtain inter-frequency neighbor cell information of the at least one macro cell; and

determining the intra-frequency neighbor cell information of the at least one macro cell and the inter-frequency neighbor cell information of the at least one macro cell as the neighbor cell information of the at least one macro cell.

4. The neighbor cell configuration method of claim 3, wherein the at least one macro cell is one macro cell corresponding to the strongest radio signal which is detected by using a receiver.

5. A neighbor cell configuration apparatus, comprising:

a cell information obtaining unit, configured to obtain information of at least one macro cell through demodulating radio signals detected by a receiver;

a neighbor cell information obtaining unit, configured to obtain neighbor cell information of the at least one macro cell obtained by the cell information obtaining unit; and

a configuring unit, configured to perform neighbor cell configuration according to a neighbor cell configuration list, which is generated by adding the information of the at least one macro cell obtained by the cell information obtaining unit and all or part of the neighbor cell information obtained by the neighbor cell information obtaining unit to the neighbor cell configuration list;

an optimizing and configuring unit, configured to optimize the neighbor cell configuration list when the number of neighbor cells used for the neighbor cell configuration performed by the configuring unit is above a predetermined threshold and perform neighbor cell configuration according to the optimized neighbor cell configuration list;

wherein the optimizing and configuring unit comprises;

a setting module, configured to set a neighbor cell optimization condition, the neighbor cell optimization condition comprising an optimization time T and the number of handovers N;

a generating module, configured to generate a target cell list through collecting target cells included in a relocation message used for a handover of a UE in a given time T1 and to obtain the number of handovers M in the given time T1;

a comparing module, configured to;

compare the neighbor cell configuration list and the target cell list and delete cells which are in the neighbor cell configuration list and are not target cells in the target cell list to generate an optimized neighbor cell configuration list when the neighbor cell optimization condition set by the setting module is satisfied, which is that the given time T1 for collecting target cells reaches the optimization time T and the number of handovers M equals to the number of handovers N, wherein the number of handovers M is calculated by adding up handovers of UEs within the given time T1; and

an optimizing and configuring module, configured to perform neighbor cell configuration according to the optimized neighbor cell configuration list.

6. The neighbor cell configuration apparatus of claim 5, wherein the neighbor cell information obtaining unit comprises:

a parsing module, configured to parse system information of the at least one macro cell obtained by the cell information obtaining unit to obtain the neighbor cell information of the at least one macro cell;

or

a querying module, configured to query a database of a macro cell base station in the at least one macro cell to obtain the neighbor cell information of the at least one macro cell;

or

a selecting module, configured to perform neighbor cell selection by using a planning tool to obtain the neighbor cell information of the at least one macro cell.

7. The neighbor cell configuration apparatus of claim 6, wherein the parsing module comprises:

a first parsing module, configured to parse the system information of the at least one macro cell to obtain measurement control system information;

an intra-frequency information parsing module, configured to parse intra-frequency measurement system information in the measurement control system information obtained by the first parsing module to obtain intra-frequency neighbor cell information of the at least one macro cell;

an inter-frequency information parsing module, configured to parse inter-frequency measurement system information in the measurement control system information obtained by the first parsing module to obtain inter-frequency neighbor cell information of the at least one macro cell; and

a determining module, configured to determine the intra-frequency neighbor cell information of the at least one macro cell and the inter-frequency neighbor cell information of the at least one macro cell as the neighbor cell information of the at least one macro cell.

8. The neighbor cell configuration apparatus of claim 7, wherein the at least one macro cell is one macro cell corresponding to the strongest radio signal which is detected by a receiver.

9. A femtocell base station, comprising:

a neighbor cell configuration apparatus, wherein the neighbor cell configuration apparatus comprises;

a cell information obtaining unit, configured to obtain information of at least one macro cell through demodulating radio signals detected by a receiver;

a neighbor cell information obtaining unit, configured to obtain neighbor cell information of the at least one macro cell obtained by the cell information obtaining unit; and

a configuring unit, configured to perform neighbor cell configuration according to a neighbor cell configuration list, which is generated by adding the information of the at least one macro cell obtained by the cell information obtaining unit and all or part of the neighbor cell information obtained by the neighbor cell information obtaining unit to the neighbor cell configuration list;

an optimizing and configuring unit, configured to optimize the neighbor cell configuration list when the number of neighbor cells used for the neighbor cell configuration performed by the configuring unit is above a predetermined threshold and perform neighbor cell configuration according to the optimized neighbor cell configuration list;

wherein the optimizing and configuring unit comprises;

a setting module, configured to set a neighbor cell optimization condition, the neighbor cell optimization condition comprising an optimization time T and the number of handovers N;

a generating module, configured to generate a target cell list through collecting target cells included in a relocation message used for a handover of a UE in a given time T1 and to obtain the number of handovers M in the given time T1;

a comparing module, configured to;

compare the neighbor cell configuration list and the target cell list and delete cells which are in the neighbor cell configuration list and are not target cells in the target cell list to generate an optimized neighbor cell configuration list when the neighbor cell optimization condition set by the setting module is satisfied, which is that the given time T1 for collecting target cells reaches the optimization time T and the number of handovers M equals to the number of handovers N, wherein the number of handovers M is calculated by adding up handovers of UEs within the given time T1; and

an optimizing and configuring module, configured to perform neighbor cell configuration according to the optimized neighbor cell configuration list.

10. The femtocell base station of claim 9, wherein the neighbor cell information obtaining unit comprises:

a parsing module, configured to parse system information of the at least one macro cell obtained by the cell information obtaining unit to obtain the neighbor cell information of the at least one macro cell;

or

a querying module, configured to query a database of a macro cell base station in the at least one macro cell to obtain the neighbor cell information of the at least one macro cell;

or

a selecting module, configured to perform neighbor cell selection by using a planning tool to obtain the neighbor cell information of at least one macro cell.

11. A neighbor cell configuration method, comprising:

setting, by a femtocell base station, a neighbor cell optimization condition, the neighbor cell optimization condition comprising an optimization time T and the number of handovers N;

generating, by the femtocell base station, a target cell list through collecting target cells included in a relocation message used for a handover of a UE in a given time T1;

when the neighbor cell optimization condition is satisfied, comparing, by the femtocell base station, a neighbor cell configuration list and the target cell list and deleting, by the femtocell base station, cells which are in the neighbor cell configuration list and are not target cells in the target cell list to generate an optimized neighbor cell configuration list, wherein the neighbor cell optimization condition is satisfied when;

the given time T1 for collecting target cells reaches the optimization time T and the number of handovers M equals to the number of handovers N, wherein the number of handovers M is calculated by adding up handovers of UEs within the given time T1 and wherein the neighbor cell configuration list is generated according to information of at least one macro cell and neighbor cell information of the at least one macro cell, wherein the information of at least one macro cell is obtained through demodulating radio signals detected by a receiver and the neighbor cell information of the at least one macro cell is obtained through parsing system information of the at least one macro cell; and

performing, by the femtocell base station, neighbor cell configuration according to the optimized neighbor cell configuration list.

12. The neighbor cell configuration method of claim 11, wherein the at least one macro cell is the one macro cell corresponding to the strongest radio signal which is detected by using a receiver.