System and method to manage network utilization according to wireless backhaul and radio access network conditions

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10244422-B2
Application number	US-201514801381-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 16, 2015
Priority date	Jul 16, 2015
Publication date	Mar 26, 2019
Grant date	Mar 26, 2019

Abstract

An example method is provided in one example embodiment and may include monitoring a plurality of wireless backhaul links associated with a radio access network (RAN); receiving an indication of a change in operating conditions for a first wireless backhaul link of the plurality of wireless backhaul links; determining utilization of the first wireless backhaul link based on the indication of the change in operating conditions; assessing an available capacity of each of the plurality of wireless backhaul links; and adjusting cellular loading in the RAN based, at least in part, on the utilization of the first wireless backhaul link and the available capacity of each of the plurality of wireless backhaul links.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
configuring link associations between a plurality of cellular nodes and a plurality of wireless backhaul links, wherein each of the plurality of cellular nodes is linked to one of the plurality of wireless backhaul links;
monitoring a plurality of wireless backhaul links associated with a radio access network (RAN);
receiving an indication of a change in operating conditions for a first wireless backhaul link of the plurality of wireless backhaul links;
determining utilization of the first wireless backhaul link based on the indication of the change in operating conditions;
calculating an available capacity of each of the plurality of wireless backhaul links based on a difference between throughput of each particular wireless backhaul link and a summation of UE traffic to be communicated through each wireless backhaul link; and
adjusting cellular loading in the RAN by handing over user equipments (UEs) connected to a first cellular node associatively linked to the first wireless backhaul link to a second cellular node of the plurality of cellular nodes associatively linked to a second wireless backhaul link, wherein handing over the UEs is performed in response to determining that a utilization of the second wireless backhaul link is less than a utilization of the first wireless backhaul link.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the indication of the change in operating conditions is associated with a throughput or capacity change event resulting in a change in the utilization of the first wireless backhaul link.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the indication of the change in operating conditions includes an indication of utilization of each of the plurality of wireless backhaul links.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the link associations identify a relationship between each particular wireless backhaul link and one or more of the plurality of cellular nodes for which UE traffic is communicated; and
storing the link associations in at least one memory element.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
communicating the indication of the change in operating conditions for the first wireless backhaul link to one or more of:
a RAN management system;
a central self-organizing network (cSON) server associated with the RAN; and
one or more distributed self-organizing network (dSON) modules associated with the RAN, wherein each dSON management system is further associated with a set of one or more of the plurality of cellular nodes associated with a particular wireless backhaul link of the plurality of wireless backhaul links.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the utilization of the first wireless backhaul link includes determining that the utilization is above a particular link utilization threshold for the first wireless backhaul link and wherein adjusting cellular loading in the RAN further by handing over UEs comprises:
identifying the second wireless backhaul link as having higher available capacity than the first wireless backhaul link;
identifying candidate cellular nodes of the plurality of cellular nodes in the RAN associated with the second wireless backhaul link, wherein the candidate cellular nodes neighbor the first cellular node and include a different cellular node, wherein the candidate cellular nodes comprises the second cellular node; and
offloading one or more UEs connected to the first cellular node to the second cellular node in the RAN associated with the second wireless backhaul link.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
reconfiguring quality of service (QoS) policies for the second cellular node in response to handing over the UEs to the second cellular node.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
reconfiguring, in response to handing over the UEs to the second cellular node, admission control for the first cellular node to deny any other UE from connecting to the first cellular node.

9. One or more non-transitory tangible media encoding logic that includes instructions for execution that when executed by a processor, is operable to perform operations comprising:
configuring link associations between a plurality of cellular nodes and a plurality of wireless backhaul links, wherein each of the plurality of cellular nodes is linked to one of the plurality of wireless backhaul links;
monitoring a plurality of wireless backhaul links associated with a radio access network (RAN);
calculating an available capacity of each of the plurality of wireless backhaul links based on a difference between throughput of each particular wireless backhaul link and a summation of UE traffic to be communicated through each wireless backhaul link;
receiving an indication of a change in operating conditions for a first wireless backhaul link of the plurality of wireless backhaul links;
determining utilization of the first wireless backhaul link based on the indication of the change in operating conditions;
assessing an available capacity of each of the plurality of wireless backhaul links; and
adjusting cellular loading in the RAN by handing over UEs connected to a first cellular node associatively linked to the first wireless backhaul link to a second cellular node of the plurality of cellular nodes associatively linked to a second wireless backhaul link, wherein handing over the UEs is performed in response to determining that a utilization of the second wireless backhaul link is less than a utilization of the first wireless backhaul link.

10. The media of claim 9 , wherein the indication of the change in operating conditions is associated with a throughput or capacity change event resulting in a change in a link utilization of the first wireless backhaul link.

11. The media of claim 10 , wherein the indication of the change in operating conditions includes an indication of a link utilization of each of the plurality of wireless backhaul links.

12. The media of claim 9 , the operations further comprising:
communicating the indication of the change in operating conditions for the first wireless backhaul link to one or more of:
a RAN management system;
a central self-organizing network (cSON) server associated with the RAN; and
one or more distributed self-organizing network (dSON) modules associated with the RAN, wherein each dSON management system is further associated with a set of one or more cellular nodes of the plurality of cellular nodes associated with a particular wireless backhaul link of the plurality of wireless backhaul links.

13. The media of claim 9 , wherein determining the utilization of the first wireless backhaul link includes determining that the utilization is above a particular link utilization threshold for the first wireless backhaul link and wherein adjusting cellular loading in the RAN by handing over UEs further comprises:
identifying the second wireless backhaul link as having higher available capacity than the first wireless backhaul link;
identifying candidate cellular nodes of the plurality of cellular nodes in the RAN associated with the second wireless backhaul link, wherein the candidate cellular nodes neighbor the first cellular node and include a different cellular node, wherein the candidate cellular nodes comprises the second cellular node; and
offloading one or more UEs connected to the first cellular node to the second cellular node in the RAN associated with the second wireless backhaul link.

14. The media of claim 9 , wherein the operations further comprise:
reconfiguring quality of service (QoS) policies for the second cellular node in response to handing over the UEs to the se

Assignees

• Cisco Tech Inc

Inventors

• Parulkar Ishwardutt

Classifications

• H04L43/0882

  Utilisation of link capacity · CPC title

• H04W84/18

  Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks · CPC title

• H04W88/18

  Service support devices; Network management devices · CPC title

• H04L47/726

  Reserving resources in multiple paths to be used simultaneously (by balancing the load H04L47/125) · CPC title

• H04L47/22

  Traffic shaping · CPC title