Radio access technology selection in a heterogeneous network

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9814021-B2
Application number	US-201414769187-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 28, 2014
Priority date	Mar 1, 2013
Publication date	Nov 7, 2017
Grant date	Nov 7, 2017

Abstract

A technology for a user equipment (UE) in a multiple radio access technology (multi-RAT) heterogeneous network (HetNet) that is operable to provide node-selection measurement information to a central controller. Node-selection measurement information can be determined at the UE for a plurality of nodes in the multi-RAT HetNet. The node-selection measurement information can be communicated from the UE to the central controller. A multi-RAT HetNet node grouping assignment can be receive for the UE from the central controller based on the node-selection measurement information.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A user equipment (UE) in a multiple radio access technology (multi-RAT) heterogeneous network (HetNet) that is operable to provide node-selection measurement information to a central controller, the UE having computer circuitry configured to:
determine the node-selection measurement information at the UE for a plurality of nodes in the multi-RAT HetNet;
communicate the node-selection measurement information from the UE to the central controller; and
receive a multi-RAT HetNet node grouping assignment for the UE from the central controller based on the node-selection measurement information; and
wherein the central controller is further configured to determine the multi-RAT HetNet node grouping assignments for a plurality of UEs in the multi-RAT HetNet.

2. The computer circuitry of claim 1 , wherein the UE is further configured to associate with one or more multi-RAT HetNet node based on the multi-RAT HetNet node grouping assignment.

3. The computer circuitry of claim 1 , wherein the node-selection measurement information is determined using a data rate, an effective data rate of a wireless local area network (WLAN) in the multi-RAT HetNet, or a signal to noise ratio (SNR) or a signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR) of the UE relative to one or more nodes in the multi-RAT HetNet.

4. The computer circuitry of claim 3 , wherein the effective data rate of the WLAN is received from one or more WLAN RATs.

5. The computer circuitry of claim 3 , wherein the UE is assigned to a same multi-RAT HetNet node grouping assignment as UEs with similar SNR, SINR, or effective data rates.

6. A central controller operable in a multiple radio access technology (multi-RAT) heterogeneous network (HetNet) that is configured to provide a grouping assignment to a user equipment (UE), the central controller having computer circuitry configured to:
receive data rate information from the UE for communication with nodes in the multi-RAT HetNet;
determine a multi-RAT HetNet node grouping assignment for the UE based on the data rate information; and
communicate the multi-RAT HetNet node grouping assignment from the central controller to the UE in the multi-RAT HetNet to configure the UE to associate with nodes in the multi-RAT HetNet node grouping assignment; and
wherein the central controller is further configured to determine the multi-RAT HetNet node grouping assignments for a plurality of UEs in the multi-RAT HetNet.

7. The computer circuitry of claim 6 , further configured to determine a signal to noise ratio (SNR) or a signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR) of the UE relative to the nodes in the multi-RAT HetNet.

8. The computer circuitry of claim 7 , wherein the multi-RAT HetNet node grouping assignment is based on a range of the SINR or SNR for the UE relative to the nodes in the multi-RAT HetNet.

9. The computer circuitry of claim 6 , further configured to:
receive grouping measurement information from the UE for communication of the UE with nodes in the multi-RAT HetNet; and
determine the data rate information based on grouping measurement information received from the UE.

10. The computer circuitry of claim 6 , wherein the grouping assignment is based on a near-neighbor only grouping algorithm.

11. The computer circuitry of claim 6 , wherein each UE is assigned to one or more multi-RAT HetNet groups based on a data rate of the UE relative to the nodes in the multi-RAT HetNet.

12. The computer circuitry of claim 11 , further configured to determine the multi-RAT HetNet node grouping assignments for a plurality of UEs based on the number of UEs in the multi-RAT HetNet and the relative SNR or SINR distributions across the multi-RAT HetNet.

13. The computer circuitry of claim 6 , further configured to update the multi-RAT HetNet node grouping assignment for the UE at a defined time or upon an arrival or a departure of a UE from the multi-RAT HetNet.

14. A node in a multiple radio access technology (multi-RAT) heterogeneous network (HetNet) that is operable to provide a node-grouping assignment to a user equipment (UE), the node having computer circuitry configured to:
receive throughput information for throughput between the UE and nodes in the multi-RAT HetNet;
determine a grouping assignment for the UE in the multi-RAT HetNet based on the throughput information; and
communicate the grouping assignment from the node to the UE in the multi-RAT HetNet to configure the UE to associate with one or more nodes in the grouping assignment; and
wherein the node is further configured to determine grouping assignments for a plurality of UEs in the multi-RAT HetNet.

15. The computer circuitry of claim 14 , wherein the computer circuitry is further configured to:
receive updated throughput information from the UE in the multi-RAT HetNet;
update the grouping assignment based on the updated throughput information; and
communicate the updated grouping assignment from the node to the UE in the multi-RAT HetNet.

16. The computer circuitry of claim 14 , wherein the node is further configured to determine a plurality of group assignments for the UE in the multi-RAT HetNet based on the throughput information.

17. The computer circuitry of claim 14 , wherein the node communicates the throughput information of the UE to another node in the multi-RAT HetNet.

18. The computer circuitry of claim 17 , wherein the throughput information is determined based on a signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR) or signal to noise ratio (SNR) of the UE relative to one or more nodes in the multi-RAT HetNet.

19. The computer circuitry of claim 14 , wherein the SINR, SNR or data rate is equalized for each grouping assignment of the UE in the multi-RAT HetNet.

20. The computer circuitry of claim 14 , the node further configured to:
receive throughput information from another node in the multi-RAT HetNet; and
determine the grouping assignment using the throughput information from the other node in the multi-RAT HetNet.

21. The computer circuitry of claim 14 , wherein the node is further configured to partition a plurality of UEs into a selected number of groups.

22. The computer circuitry of claim 14 , wherein the node is further configured to set access permissions for a group of UEs to access a node in the multi-RAT HetNet.

23. The computer circuitry of claim 22 , wherein the access permissions are restricted when there is significant mismatch between the throughput information of the UE and a throughput information of other UEs.

24. A method for providing node-selection measurement information to a node, comprising:
determining the node-selection measurement information at the UE for a plurality of nodes in the multi-RAT HetNet, wherein the node-selection measurement information is based on data throughput between the UE and the plurality of nodes;
communicating the node-selection measurement information from the UE to a node in the multi-RAT HetNet;
receiving a node-selection grouping permission from the node in the multi-RAT HetNet; and
determining a multi-RAT HetNet node to associate with based on the node-selection grouping permission.

25. The method of claim 24 , further comprising determining the node-selection grouping permission using a range of the node-selection measurement information, wherein the node-selection measurement information is selected from a data rate, a signal to noise ratio (SNR), or a

Assignees

• Himayat Nageen
• Yeh Shu-Ping
• Talwar Shilpa
• Vannithamby Rath
• Intel Ip Corp

Inventors

• Himayat Nageen
• Yeh Shu-Ping
• Talwar Shilpa
• Vannithamby Rath

Classifications

• H04W72/30 Primary

  Resource management for broadcast services · CPC title

• H04W72/20

  Control channels or signalling for resource management · CPC title

• H04W72/542

  using measured or perceived quality · CPC title

• H04W72/543

  based on requested quality, e.g. QoS · CPC title

• H04W72/56

  based on priority criteria · CPC title