System and method for managing interference in a network environment based on user presence

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9699601-B2
Application number	US-201514679868-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 6, 2015
Priority date	Apr 6, 2015
Publication date	Jul 4, 2017
Grant date	Jul 4, 2017

Abstract

An example method is provided in one example embodiment and may include determining a presence of user equipment (UE) in relation to small cell radio(s) of a small cell network based on information obtained through the small cell network and one or more parallel networks; and adjusting transmit power for the small cell radio(s) based on the presence of UE in relation to the small cell radio(s). Another example method can include determining that a UE in cell paging channel mode has changed its selected macro cell radio; determining that the UE is allowed service on a small cell radio located in a vicinity of a macro cell coverage area of a selected macro cell radio; and adjusting a transmit power of the small cell radio based on a presence of the UE in a surrounding macro cell coverage area of the small cell radio.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
determining, by a self-organizing network (SON) management system, a presence of one or more user equipment (UE) in relation to one or more small cell radios of a small cell network based on information obtained through the small cell network and one or more parallel networks, wherein the one or more parallel networks include, at least in part,a WiFi network;
determining a presence of the one or more UE in relation to one or more wireless radios of the WiFi network;
determining whether any of the one or more UE are within a potential coverage area of one or more small cells radio based, at least in part, on a location of the one or more wireless radios of the WiFi network; and
adjusting, by the SON management system, transmit power for one or more small cell radios of the small cell network based, at least in part, on the presence of one or more UE in relation to the one or more small cell radios of the small cell network, wherein the adjusting comprises increasing the transmit power for at least one small cell radio from a reduced power level based on a determination that at least one UE is within a potential coverage area of the at least one small cell radio and that the at least one UE is authorized to connect to the at least one small cell radio.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the presence of the one or more UE includes detecting one or more location updates for the one or more UE within the small cell network.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the presence of the one or more UE includes detecting one or more wireless beacons of the one or more UE being received by the one or more wireless radios of the WiFi network.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the potential coverage area of the at least one small cell radio is determined based, at least in part, on a coverage area provided by the at least one small cell radio at a maximum transmit power, a normal transmit or a nominal transmit power.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the presence of the one or more UE in relation to one or more wireless radios of the WiFi network further comprises:
receiving one or more wireless beacons transmitted by at least one UE at the one or more wireless radios of the WiFi network; and
identifying a user associated with the at least one UE based, at least in part, on a relationship between an International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) of the user and a Media Access Control (MAC) address for the at least one UE.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein adjusting the transmit power includes adjusting a pilot channel transmit power for each of the one or more small cell radios.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein adjusting the transmit power includes reducing the transmit power for a particular small cell radio based on a determination that no UE are present within a coverage area of the particular small cell radio.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein adjusting the transmit power further comprises:
determining whether one or more UE are present in a coverage area of a particular small cell radio upon expiration of each of a plurality of timers; and
reducing the transmit power for the particular small cell radio based on a determination that no UE are present within the coverage area of the small cell radio at expiration of each of the plurality of timers.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein adjusting the transmit power includes increasing the transmit power for a particular small cell radio from a reduced level to one or more increased levels upon determining the presence of a plurality of UEs near a potential coverage area that the particular small cell radio is capable of providing.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein adjusting the transmit power includes increasing the transmit power for a particular small cell radio from a reduced level to a normal level upon determining that a number of UEs present near a potential coverage area that the particular small cell radio is capable of providing reaches a threshold number of UEs.

11. One or more non-transitory tangible media encoding logic that include instructions for execution by a processor, wherein the execution causes the processor perform operations, comprising:
determining, by a self-organizing network (SON) management system, a presence of one or more user equipment (UE) in relation to one or more small cell radios of a small cell network based on information obtained through the small cell network and one or more parallel networks, wherein the one or more parallel networks include, at least in part, a WiFi network;
determining a presence of the one or more UE in relation to one or more wireless radios of the WiFi network;
determining whether any of the one or more UE are within a potential coverage area of one or more small cells radio based, at least in part, on a location of one or more wireless radios of the WiFi network; and
adjusting transmit power for one or more small cell radios of the small cell network based, at least in part, on the presence of one or more UE in relation to the one or more small cell radios of the small cell network, wherein the adjusting comprises increasing the transmit power for at least one small cell radio from a reduced power level based on a determination that at least one UE is within a potential coverage area of the at least one small cell radio and that the at least one UE is authorized to connect to the at least one small cell radio.

12. The media of claim 11 , wherein determining the presence of the one or more UE includes detecting one or more location updates for the one or more UE within the small cell network.

13. The media of claim 11 , wherein determining the presence of the one or more UE includes detecting one or more wireless beacons of the one or more UE being received by the one or more wireless radios of the WiFi network.

14. The media of claim 11 , wherein the potential coverage area of the at least one small cell radio is determined based, at least in part, on a coverage area provided by the at least one small cell radio at a maximum transmit power, a normal transmit or a nominal transmit power.

15. The media of claim 11 , wherein determining the presence of the one or more UE in relation to one or more wireless radios of the WiFi network further comprises:
receiving one or more wireless beacons transmitted by at least one UE at the one or more wireless radios of the WiFi network; and
identifying a user associated with the at least one UE based, at least in part, on a relationship between an International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) of the user and a Media Access Control (MAC) address for the at least one UE.

16. A communication system comprising:
a self-organizing network (SON) management system, comprising:
a memory element for storing data; and
a processor for executing instructions associated with the data, wherein the executing causes the communication system to perform operations, comprising:
determining, by the SON management system, a presence of one or more user equipment (UE) in relation to one or more small cell radios of a small cell network based on information obtained through the small cell network and one or more parallel networks, wherein the one or more parallel networks include, at least in part, a WiFi network;
determining a presence of the one or more UE in relation to one or more wireless radios of the WiFi network;
determining whether any of the one or more UE are within a potential coverage area of one or more small cells radio based, at least in part, on a location of the one or mor

Assignees

• Cisco Tech Inc

Inventors

• Grayson Mark
• Okmyanskiy Anton
• Nuss Ziv
• Anantha Swaminathan A
• Giustina Andrea
• Graham Mickael James
• Patil Santosh Ramrao

Classifications

• H04W68/02

  Arrangements for increasing efficiency of notification or paging channel · CPC title

• H04W84/045

  using private Base Stations, e.g. femto Base Stations, home Node B · CPC title

• H04W4/02 Primary

  Services making use of location information · CPC title

• H04W52/244

  Interferences in heterogeneous networks, e.g. among macro and femto or pico cells or other sector / system interference [OSI] · CPC title

• H04W64/006

  with additional information processing, e.g. for direction or speed determination · CPC title