Determination of radio resource usage

• US 9,838,927 B2
• Filed: 06/13/2013
• Issued: 12/05/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 06/13/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
• Original Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
• Inventors: Bergstrm, Andreas, Frberg Olsson, Jonas, Gunnarsson, Fredrik, Henriksson, Daniel, Hessler, Martin
• Primary Examiner(s): Phan, Tri H
• Application Number:
  US14/896,677
• Publication Number:
  US 20160142948A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,636 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/08 Testing, supervising or monitoring using real traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/00837 Determination of triggering parameters for hand-off
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/008375 based on historical data
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/0085 Hand-off measurements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/22 for handling the traffic

Abstract

There is provided a method for determining radio resource usage. The method is performed by a network node. The method comprises associating a bearer of a terminal device with a target bitrate. The method comprises estimating a spectral efficiency of the bearer. The method comprises acquiring a maximum radio resource usage. The method comprises determining radio resource usage of the bearer based on the target bitrate, the maximum radio resource usage, and the estimated spectral efficiency. A corresponding network node and a corresponding computer program are also provided.

Claims

1. A method for determining radio resource usage, the method comprising a network node:

associating a bearer of a terminal device with a target bitrate;

acquiring historical radio resource usage and historical bitrate information for the bearer;

acquiring an estimated spectral efficiency of the bearer, wherein the estimated spectral efficiency is based on at least one of the historical radio resource usage and the historical bitrate information for the bearer;

acquiring a maximum radio resource usage; and

determining radio resource usage of the bearer based on the target bitrate, the maximum radio resource usage, and the estimated spectral efficiency.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

acquiring radio measurements related to the bearer; and

estimating the spectral efficiency of the bearer based on the acquired radio measurements.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the acquired radio measurements are obtained by the network node, or received from either the terminal device or at least one other network node.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein all radio resources in the strict subset of radio resources are associated with almost blank subframes or reduced power subframes configurations of at least one cell in the network.

5. The method of claim 2, further comprising predicting bitrate per radio resource unit based on the acquired radio measurements of the terminal device.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the radio resource usage comprises determining the radio resource usage as the minimum of the radio resource usage of the bearer based on the target bitrate, the estimated spectral efficiency, and the acquired maximum radio resource usage.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

aggregating the determined radio resource usage over a set of bearers; and

generating a load estimate for the set of bearers based on the aggregated determined radio resource usage.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the set of bearers is associated with a terminal device.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the set of bearers is associated with a network node.

10. The method of claim 7, further comprising transmitting the load estimate to at least one other network node.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein one of the at least one other network node is a source network node of the terminal device.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the radio resource usage is restricted to a strict subset of radio resources.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein all radio resources in the strict subset of radio resources are associated with common interference conditions.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

acquiring the bearer by receiving identification of the terminal device and bearer information from a network node of the terminal device; and

evaluating whether or not a network node not serving the bearer can accommodate the bearer based on the received identification of the terminal device and the bearer information.

15. The method of claim 1:

wherein the network node is a non-source network node of the terminal device

further comprising;

comparing the determined radio resource usage to radio resources available to the non-source network node; and

signaling a handover capability of the bearer to a source network node of the bearer based on the comparison.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

predicting radio resource usage for at least one bearer served by the network node;

comparing the predicted radio resource usage to current radio resource usage of the network node; and

determining a load sharing action based on the comparison.

17. The method of claim 1, further comprising after handover of a bearer, transmitting the radio resource unit usage of the bearer to the network node and to the network node from which the bearer was handed over.

18. The method of claim 1, further comprising comparing the determined radio resource unit usage to the amount of available radio resources in a cell served by the network node.

19. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

performing a load sharing action based on the determined radio resource usage of the bearer; and

predicting a load in a cell served by the network node after having performed the load sharing action.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein the target bitrate is dependent on bearer state and type of bearer, the bearer state being switchable between an active state and an inactive state.

21. The method of claim 1, wherein the spectral efficiency of the bearer is provided as bits per radio resource unit.

22. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining a total load of a cell served by the network node as the number of required radio resource units needed to fulfil the target bitrate for all bearers in the cell.

23. A network node for determining radio resource usage, the network node comprising:

a processing circuit configured to;

associate a bearer of a terminal device with a target bitrate;

acquire historical radio resource usage and historical bitrate information for the bearer;

acquire an estimated spectral efficiency of the bearer, wherein the estimated spectral efficiency is based on at least one of the historical radio resource usage and the historical bitrate information for the bearer;

acquire a maximum radio resource usage; and

determine radio resource usage of the bearer based on the target bitrate, the maximum radio resource usage, and the estimated spectral efficiency.

24. A computer program product stored in a non-transitory computer readable medium for determining radio resource usage, the computer program product comprising software instructions which, when run on a processing circuit of a network node, causes the network node to:

associate a bearer of a terminal device with a target bitrate;

acquire historical radio resource usage and historical bitrate information for the bearer;

acquire an estimated spectral efficiency of the bearer, wherein the estimated spectral efficiency is based on at least one of the historical radio resource usage and the historical bitrate information for the bearer;

acquire a maximum radio resource usage; and

determine radio resource usage of the bearer based on the target bitrate, the maximum radio resource usage, and the estimated spectral efficiency.