Coverage adjustment in E-UTRA networks

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10299146-B2
Application number	US-201715702089-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 12, 2017
Priority date	Aug 3, 2012
Publication date	May 21, 2019
Grant date	May 21, 2019

Abstract

Embodiments of systems and techniques for coverage adjustment in evolved universal terrain radio access networks (E-UTRANs) are described. In some embodiments, a network management (NM) apparatus may receive data representative of first and second radio link failure (RLF) reports including information related to respective disconnections of first and second user equipment (UEs) from an E-UTRAN. The NM apparatus may identify a hole in a coverage area of the E-UTRAN based at least in part on the first and second RLF reports, and may perform an automated coverage and capacity optimization (CCO) action to reconfigure cell resources of the E-UTRAN based on the identified hole. Other embodiments may be described and claimed.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. One or more non-transitory computer readable media (NTCRM) comprising program code, wherein execution of the program code by one or more processors of a network management (NM) apparatus is to cause a Coverage and Capacity Optimization (CCO) component of the NM apparatus to:
collect performance data from a plurality of evolved nodeBs (eNBs) of a wireless cellular network;
identify potential problems or improvements in a configuration and operation of the plurality of eNBs based on the collected performance data;
identify one or more CCO actions based on the identified potential problems or improvements; and
send instructions to one or more eNBs of the plurality of eNBs to perform the one or more CCO actions, wherein the instructions indicate to reconfigure one or more service parameters to implement changes to the wireless cellular network.

2. The one or more NTCRM of claim 1 , wherein, to identify the potential problems or improvements, execution of the program code is to cause the CCO component to:
detect a service-deficient coverage area associated with a plurality of evolved universal terrestrial radio access network (E-UTRAN) cells provided by the plurality of eNBs, wherein the service-deficient coverage area comprises an area with insufficient signal strength to provide threshold connectivity to a Long Term Evolution (LTE) network.

3. The one or more NTCRM of claim 2 , wherein the service-deficient coverage area is one or more of:
an entire E-UTRAN cell of the plurality of E-UTRAN cells with coverage by one or more cells of one or more Radio Access Technology (RATs) that are different than E-UTRAN;
an entire E-UTRAN cell of the plurality of E-UTRAN cells without any other radio coverage;
an E-UTRAN coverage hole that is located within an E-UTRAN cell of the plurality of E-UTRAN cells with coverage by one or more cells of one or more RATs that are different than E-UTRAN;
an E-UTRAN coverage hole that is located within an E-UTRAN cell of the plurality of E-UTRAN cells without any other radio coverage;
an E-UTRAN coverage hole that is located between at least two E-UTRAN cells of the plurality of E-UTRAN cells with coverage by one or more cells of one or more RATs that are different than E-UTRAN; or
an E-UTRAN coverage hole that is located between at least two E-UTRAN cells of the plurality of E-UTRAN cells without any other radio coverage.

4. The one or more NTCRM of claim 2 , wherein the instructions are to instruct the one or more eNBs to adapt E-UTRAN cells provided by the one or more eNBs to increase signal strength in the service-deficient coverage area to provide the threshold connectivity to the LTE network.

5. The one or more NTCRM of claim 4 , wherein the instructions are to instruct the one or more eNBs to:
increase or decrease a size of E-UTRAN cells provided by the one or more eNBs to extend the E-UTRAN cells into the service-deficient coverage area; or
increase or decrease capacity of the E-UTRAN cells provided by the one or more eNBs based on a number of user equipment (UEs) within the E-UTRAN cells.

6. The one or more NTCRM of claim 1 , wherein, to identify the potential problems or improvements, execution of the program code is to cause the CCO component to:
correlate the performance data with a same user session, a same geographic area, or environmental information.

7. The one or more NTCRM of claim 1 , wherein, to identify the one or more CCO actions, execution of the program code is to cause the CCO component to:
control transmission of instructions to initiate performance of one or more minimization of drive tests (MDTs) by the one or more eNBs;
control receipt of MDT data from the one or more eNBs, wherein the MDT data is based on results of the one or more MDTs; and
correlate the MDT data with the performance data and a same user session, a same geographic area, or environmental information.

8. The one or more NTCRM of claim 1 , wherein the performance data comprises:
one or more of a number of active UEs in a given area, internet protocol (IP) throughput, upload or download physical resource block (PRB) usage, packet delay, drop rate, loss rate, environmental information, and one or more radio link failure (RLF) reports including RLF data,
wherein the RLF data comprises one or more of reference signal received power (RSRP) measurements, reference signal received quality (RSRQ) measurements, or radio resource control (RRC) failure events,
wherein the RSRP measurements include location information or the RSRQ measurements include location information, and
wherein at least some of the performance data is provided to the plurality of eNBs by one or more UEs.

9. The one or more NTCRM of claim 8 , wherein, to identify the potential problems or improvements, execution of the program code is to cause the CCO component to:
correlate the RLF data with the one or more of a number of active UEs in a given area, the IP throughput, the upload or download PRB usage, the packet delay, the drop rate, the loss rate, or the environmental information.

10. The one or more NTCRM of claim 1 , wherein the one or more service parameters comprise power settings for one or more antennas or an alignment for one or more antennas.

11. An apparatus to be implemented as a Coverage and Capacity Optimization (CCO) component of a network management (NM) computer device, the apparatus comprising:
processor circuitry to:
perform performance monitoring of a plurality of evolved nodeBs (eNBs) of a wireless cellular network, wherein, to perform performance monitoring, the CCO component is to collect performance data from the plurality of eNBs,
identify potential problems or improvements in a configuration and operation of the plurality of eNBs based on the collected performance data,
identify one or more CCO actions based on the identified potential problems or improvements, and
generate instructions to reconfigure one or more service parameters to implement changes to the wireless cellular network, wherein the one or more service parameters comprise power settings for one or more antennas or alignment of one or more antennas; and

communication circuitry coupled with the processor circuitry, the communication circuitry to send the instructions to one or more eNBs of the plurality of eNBs to perform the one or more CCO actions.

12. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein, to identify the potential problems or improvements, the processor circuitry is to:
detect a service-deficient coverage area associated with a plurality of evolved universal terrestrial radio access network (E-UTRAN) cells provided by the plurality of eNBs, wherein the service-deficient coverage area comprises an area with insufficient signal strength to provide threshold connectivity to a Long Term Evolution (LTE) network.

13. The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein the service-deficient coverage area is one or more of:
an entire E-UTRAN cell of the plurality of E-UTRAN cells with coverage by one or more cells of one or more Radio Access Technology (RATs) that are different than E-UTRAN;
an entire E-UTRAN cell of the plurality of E-UTRAN cells without any other radio coverage;
an E-UTRAN coverage hole that is located within an E-UTRAN cell of the plurality of E-UTRAN cells with coverage by one or more cells of one or more RATs that are different than E-UTRAN;
an E-UTRAN coverage hole that is located within an E-UTRAN cell of the plurality of E-UTRAN cells without any other radio coverage;
an E-UTRAN coverage hole that is located between at least two E-UTRAN cells of the plurality of E-UTRAN cells with coverage by one or more cells of one or mo

Assignees

• Intel Corp

Inventors

• Chou Joey
• Mena Jorge

Classifications

• H04W12/06

  Authentication · CPC title

• H04W76/14

  Direct-mode setup · CPC title

• H04N21/25825

  involving client display capabilities, e.g. screen resolution of a mobile phone (optimising the visualisation of content during browsing in the Internet G06F16/9577; processing of terminal status or physical abilities in wireless networks H04W8/22; authentication in wireless network security H04W12/06) · CPC title

• H04L43/0811

  by checking connectivity · CPC title

• H04W52/0229

  where the received signal is a wanted signal · CPC title