Autonomous determination of overlapping coverage in heterogeneous networks

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9408095-B2
Application number	US-201414241796-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 5, 2014
Priority date	Feb 5, 2014
Publication date	Aug 2, 2016
Grant date	Aug 2, 2016

Abstract

Systems and methods are disclosed for autonomously determining overlapping coverage in a cellular communications network. In one embodiment, the cellular communications network is a heterogeneous cellular communications network. In one embodiment, a network node of a cellular communication system obtains information (e.g., pilot reports) indicative of a perceived coverage of one or more covering cells at wireless devices within a measuring cell over a measurement interval. The network node determines overlapping coverage of the measuring cell and the one or more covering cells based on the information indicative of the perceived coverage of the one or more covering cells at the wireless devices.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of operation of a network node of a cellular communications network, comprising:
obtaining, based on communication with a plurality of wireless devices within a measuring cell, information that is indicative of positions, including range, of the plurality of wireless devices within the measuring cell and information that is indicative of a perceived coverage of one or more covering cells at the plurality of wireless devices;
determining overlapping coverage of the measuring cell and the one or more covering cells based on the information that is indicative of the positions of the plurality of wireless devices within the measuring cell and the information indicative of the perceived coverage of the one or more covering cells at the plurality of wireless devices; and
using the overlapping coverage.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
the information indicative of the perceived coverage of the one or more covering cells at the plurality of wireless devices comprises pilot reports generated by the plurality of wireless devices for the one or more covering cells; and
determining overlapping coverage comprises determining overlapping coverage of the measuring cell and the one or more covering cells based on the pilot reports generated by the plurality of wireless devices for the one or more covering cells over a measurement interval.

3. The method of claim 2
wherein determining overlapping coverage of the measuring cell and the one or more covering cells comprises determining overlapping coverage of the measuring cell and the one or more covering cells based on the information that is indicative of the positions of the plurality of the wireless devices within the measuring cell over the measurement interval and the pilot reports generated by the plurality of wireless devices for the one or more covering cells over the measurement interval.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the information that is indicative of the positions of the plurality of wireless devices comprises Channel Quality Indicator (CQI) values reported by the plurality of wireless devices for the measuring cell.

5. The method of claim 3 , wherein the information that is indicative of the positions of the plurality of wireless devices comprises ranging information for the plurality of wireless devices with respect to the measuring cell.

6. The method of claim 3 , wherein the information that is indicative of the positions of the plurality of wireless devices comprises any combination of one or more of a group consisting of: Channel Quality Indicator (CQI) values reported by the plurality of wireless devices for the measuring cell, Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) measurements reported by the plurality of wireless devices for the measuring cell, RSSI measurements made by a base station serving the measuring cell with respect to the plurality of wireless devices, Signal-to-Interference-plus-Noise Ratio (SINR) measurements made by the base station serving the measuring cell with respect to the plurality of wireless devices, ranging information for the plurality of wireless devices with respect to the measuring cell, beamforming indices utilized for the plurality of wireless devices with respect to the measuring cell, and ancillary position information for the plurality of wireless devices.

7. The method of claim 3 , wherein each pilot report includes a received pilot strength measured at a corresponding one of the plurality of wireless devices for a pilot signal transmitted by a corresponding one of the one or more covering cells.

8. The method of claim 3 , wherein determining overlapping coverage of the measuring cell and the one or more covering cells based on the information that is indicative of the positions of the plurality of the wireless devices within the measuring cell over the measurement interval and the pilot reports generated by the plurality of wireless devices for the one or more covering cells over the measurement interval comprises:
processing the information that is indicative of the positions of the plurality of wireless devices within the measuring cell and the pilot reports to provide data indicative of overlapping coverage; and
determining the overlapping coverage based on the data.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein processing the information that is indicative of the positions of the plurality of wireless devices within the measuring cell and the pilot reports includes correlating each pilot report to a corresponding one of a plurality of ranges of values for the information to provide correlated data.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein each range of the plurality of ranges of values for the information is a range of average Channel Quality Indicator (CQI) values.

11. The method of claim 9 , wherein processing the information and the pilot reports further includes, for each combination of one of the plurality of ranges of values for the information and one of the one or more covering cells:
determining a total number of the pilot reports received for the combination that report a received pilot strength above a threshold value.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the threshold value is the same for each combination of one of the plurality of ranges of values for the information and one of the one or more covering cells.

13. The method of claim 11 , wherein a threshold value of a first combination of one of the plurality of ranges of values for the information and one of the one or more covering cells is different from a threshold value of a second combination of one of the plurality of ranges of values for the information and one of the one or more covering cells.

14. The method of claim 11 , wherein determining the overlapping coverage comprises, for each combination of one of the plurality of ranges of values and one of the one or more covering cells, determining overlapping coverage based upon the total number of the pilot reports received for the combination that report a received pilot strength above the threshold value.

15. The method of claim 11 , wherein determining the overlapping coverage comprises, for each combination of one of the plurality of ranges of values and one of the one or more covering cells, determining overlapping coverage based upon a ratio of:
(a) the total number of the pilot reports received for the combination that report a received pilot strength above the threshold value, and
(b) a sum of:
(i) the total number of the pilot reports received for the combination that report a received pilot strength above the threshold value, and
(ii) a number of wireless devices in the measured cell at the one of the plurality of ranges of values that did not report a received pilot strength for the one of the one or more covering cells above the threshold value.

16. The method of claim 1 , wherein using the overlapping coverage comprises at least one of a group consisting of:
exploiting the overlapping coverage by the network node; and
providing the overlapping coverage to another network node.

17. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining overlapping coverage includes determining whether each of the one or more covering cells completely overlaps, partially overlaps, or does not overlap the measuring cell.

18. The method of claim 1 , further comprising updating the overlapping coverage according to an update scheme that gradually updates the overlapping coverage over time.

19. The method of claim 1 , wherein the network node of the cellular communications network is a base station servin

Assignees

• Ericsson Telefon Ab L M

Inventors

• Lightstone Leonard
• Richards Christopher
• Mah Edward
• Mann Karl D
• Comeau Adrien

Classifications

• H04W72/23

  in the downlink direction of a wireless link, i.e. towards a terminal · CPC title

• H04W24/00

  Supervisory, monitoring or testing arrangements · CPC title

• H04W24/10

  Scheduling measurement reports {; Arrangements for measurement reports} · CPC title

• H04L5/0048

  Allocation of pilot signals, i.e. of signals known to the receiver (allocation of control signalling H04L5/0053; use of control signalling H04L5/0091) · CPC title

• H04W48/16 Primary

  Discovering, processing access restriction or access information · CPC title