Cellular communication system with moving base stations and methods and apparatus useful in conjunction therewith

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9769871-B2
Application number	US-201113575795-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 27, 2011
Priority date	Jan 28, 2010
Publication date	Sep 19, 2017
Grant date	Sep 19, 2017

Abstract

A mobile communication network system comprising a core network including a core device and at least one static base station; base stations; and Mobile stations communicating via antennae with the base stations; The base stations including at least one moving base station which communicates via antennae with the mobile stations and has a physical e.g. Ethernet back-connection to a co-located radio manager having a physical connection with a co-located mobile station communicating via antennae with at least one selectable static base station, wherein each individual co-located radio manager comprises a radio resource manager; and functionality for receiving information from, and sending information to, other respectively co-located radio managers regarding qualities of their respective connections back to the core network, quality of its own connection back to the core network and channel quality which other base stations are able to provide and which its own base station is able to provide, to mobile stations in the vicinity of the individual co-located radio manager, and for using the information to determine whether to reject at least one mobile station seeking to be served by an individual base station associated with said individual co-located radio manager.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A moving cellular communication method comprising:
providing a plurality of moving relays each including base station functionality, a radio manager and mobile station functionality, all co-located,
using each base station functionality to communicate via antennae with at least one mobile station thereby to define a first radio link there between, and wherein each base station functionality has a physical connection to its co-located radio manager,
using each mobile station functionality to communicate via antennae with a unit which has base station functionality thereby to define a second radio link,
wherein the radio manager in each individual moving relay comprises:
a radio resource manager; and
functionality for exchanging information with radio managers included in moving relays other than said individual moving relay, wherein said information is used by said radio resource manager to select, for at least one individual mobile station seeking to be served, one of:

a static base station; and
a base station functionality, to which to connect said individual mobile station in order to provide cellular communication services thereto,
wherein decision making provides at least one quality grade result indicating good/bad channel quality, for possible routes,
and wherein said quality grade results include:
at least SNR measurements and
statistical information indicating whether or not SNR measurements are changing,
wherein said statistical information also includes at least one expected value for said SNR measurements,
and wherein whether or not a standard deviation of SNR is too large to be acceptable depends at least on how high is the expected value.

2. A method according to claim 1 wherein the expected value may have at least one high value H in which case at least one standard deviation of SNR is deemed acceptable and wherein said at least one standard deviation of SNR is deemed too large to be acceptable if the expected value is L <H.

3. A moving cellular communication system comprising:
a plurality of moving relays each including base station functionality, a radio manager and mobile station functionality, all co-located,
wherein each base station functionality is operative to communicate via antennae with at least one mobile station thereby to define a first radio link there between, and wherein each base station functionality has a physical connection to its co-located radio manager,
wherein each mobile station functionality communicates via antennae with a unit which has base station functionality thereby to define a second radio link,
wherein the radio manager in each individual moving relay comprises:
a radio resource manager; and
functionality for exchanging information with radio managers included in moving relays other than said individual moving relay,

wherein said information is used by said radio resource manager to select, for at least one individual mobile station seeking to be served, one of:
a static base station; and
a base station functionality, to which to connect said individual mobile station in order to provide cellular communication services thereto,

wherein decision making provides at least one quality grade result indicating good/bad channel quality, for possible routes,
and wherein said quality grade results include:
at least SNR measurements and
statistical information indicating whether or not SNR measurements are changing,
wherein said statistical information also includes at least one expected value for said SNR measurements,
and wherein whether or not a standard deviation of SNR is too large to be acceptable depends at least on how high is the expected value.

4. A moving cellular communication system according to claim 3 ,
a base station functionality, to which to connect said individual mobile station in order to provide cellular communication services thereto,
the system also comprising a relay network manager (DisNetRM) located at a static network core device,
wherein the DisNetRM is operative to co-ordinate between central radio resource management (RRM) activity and distributed rRM network activity and wherein a central RRM is operative to communicate with an rRM network, including relay Radio Resource Managers located at least some of said relays, through the DisNetRM.

5. A system according to claim 4 operative in conjunction with a cellular network including a core device, at least one static base station, and a population of mobile stations communicating via antennae with at least one of the base stations, wherein at least one topological change in said system occurs dynamically, said topological change comprises a dynamic change in at least one connection between a moving relay and at least one of a moving relay and a static base station.

6. A system according to claim 5 wherein at least one radio resource manager locally stores at least some of the information it uses to make a decision regarding selection of a cellular communication service provider for an individual mobile station seeking to be served, even after said decision has been made, thereby to generate a database co-located with said radio resource manager.

7. A system according to claim 4 wherein said information used by said radio resource manager includes information obtained from its co-located base station functionality.

8. A system according to claim 7 wherein said information obtained from said co-located base station functionality is derived from at least one measurement of at least one characteristic of said first radio link.

9. A system according to claim 8 wherein said information obtained from said co-located base station functionality includes said at least one measurement itself.

10. A system according to claim 7 wherein said information used by said radio resource manager includes information obtained from its co-located mobile station functionality.

11. A system according to claim 4 wherein said information used by said radio resource manager includes information obtained from its co-located mobile station functionality.

12. A system according to claim 11 wherein said information obtained from said co-located mobile station functionality is derived from at least one measurement of at least one characteristic of said second radio link.

13. A system according to claim 12 wherein said functionalities are provided in accordance with a cellular communication standard and wherein said information includes information provided by said mobile station functionality in accordance with said standard.

14. A system according to claim 13 wherein said cellular communication standard comprises 3GPP E-UTRAN LTE.

15. A system according to claim 14 , where the information includes at least one of RSSI, RSRP, RSRQ.

16. A system according to claim 14 where the information includes a rsSINR (reference signal SINR) metric.

17. A system according to claim 12 wherein said information obtained from said co-located mobile station functionality includes said at least one measurement itself.

18. A system according to claim 4 wherein each said moving relay and each said mobile station constitutes a cellular communication node and wherein said links generate routes interconnecting said nodes and wherein at least one radio resource manager residing at an individual node is operative to compute a route quality parameter characterizing quality of at least one individual route passing through said individual node, by combining information pertaining to links along said individual route.

Assignees

• Giloh Benjamin
• Elta Systems Ltd

Inventors

• Giloh Benjamin

Classifications

• H04W72/542

  using measured or perceived quality · CPC title

• H04W72/20

  Control channels or signalling for resource management · CPC title

• H04B7/15507

  Relay station based processing for cell extension or control of coverage area, (network planning with network coordinated processing with regard to cell extension H04W16/26; network topologies using dedicated repeater stations H04W84/047; terminal devices adapted for relaying to or from an other terminal H04W88/04) · CPC title

• H04B7/2606

  Arrangements for base station coverage control, e.g. by using relays in tunnels · CPC title

• H04W40/248

  Connectivity information update · CPC title