Metro cell planning

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9848337-B2
Application number	US-201213682543-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 20, 2012
Priority date	Nov 20, 2012
Publication date	Dec 19, 2017
Grant date	Dec 19, 2017

Abstract

Dynamic metro cell location planning is provided within the wireless communication coverage area of a macro cell. Metro cell location planning can include obtaining performance parameters associated with the macro cell and evaluating coverage parameters of the macro cell. Metro cell location planning can also include selecting, based on the performance parameters and the coverage parameters, a location within a wireless communication coverage area of the macro cell for placement of the metro cell. The selected location can be conveyed to a user and/or entity for deployment of the metro cells. Metro cells can be used by a carrier to fill a coverage hole and/or to offload capacity hot-spots within the network.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system, comprising:
a processor; and
a memory that stores executable instructions that, when executed by the processor, facilitate performance of operations, comprising:
partitioning a wireless communication coverage area of a macro cell device into grids;
in response to determining that a customer input has been received from a mobile device within a first grid of the grids, and a device input has been received, without the customer input, from the mobile device within a second grid of the grids, translating the customer input into a first weighted value of a weighted scale to facilitate assignment of the first weighted value to the first grid and translating, according to a measured power of a communication channel, the device input into a second weighted value of the weighted scale to facilitate assignment of the second weighted value to the second grid; and
in response to ranking the first grid according to the first weighted value and the second grid according to the second weighted value, selecting a location with a highest ranking within the grids for placement of a metro cell device that is associated with a first power emission that is lower than a second power emission of the macro cell device.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the partitioning comprises selecting sizes of the grids based on defined granularity levels.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprise:
assigning a third weighted value of the weighted scale to performance parameter data corresponding to a diffraction of a wireless signal that has been caused by a structure.

4. The system of claim 3 , wherein the operations further comprise:
ranking a third grid according to the third weighted value.

5. The system of claim 3 , wherein the operations further comprise clustering the grids based on the third weighted value.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprise:
determining network statistic data representing respective communications between the macro cell device and respective network devices.

7. The system of claim 6 , wherein the determining the network statistic data includes using operation support system performance counters.

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprise determining the wireless communication coverage area of the macro cell device.

9. The system of claim 8 , wherein the determining the wireless communication coverage area of the macro cell device includes processing model data representing a radio frequency propagation model.

10. The system of claim 9 , wherein the model data represents an implementation of an Okumura-Hata model.

11. The system of claim 4 , wherein the selecting comprises selecting the location based on the third weighed value.

12. A method, comprising:
dividing, by a system comprising a processor, a wireless coverage area of a macro cell device into grids;
in response to operator data being determined to be received, via an operator input, from a user equipment within a first grid of the grids, and equipment data being determined to be received, without the operator input, from the user equipment within a second grid of the grids, mapping, by the system, the operator data to a first priority of a group of integer-based priorities and mapping, based on a power of a signal that has been received by the system, the equipment data to a second priority of the group of integer-based priorities for facilitation of a first assignment of the first priority to the first grid and a second assignment of the second priority to the second grid; and
based on the first priority and the second priority, selecting a location having a highest priority of the group of integer-based priorities for a metro cell device within the grids, wherein the metro cell device corresponds to a first emission power that is lower than a second emission power of the macro cell device.

13. The method of claim 12 , further comprising:
ranking, by the system, the grids based on a network performance parameter statistic associated with a diffraction of a wireless signal that has been caused by a structure.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the selecting further comprises:
determining two portions of the grids that are adjacent and comprise respective rankings that are determined to be similar;
grouping the two portions as a grouped portion, and
selecting the location of the metro cell based on the grouped portion.

15. The method of claim 12 , further comprising:
calculating, by the system, the wireless coverage area of the macro cell device using model data representing a radio frequency propagation model.

16. The method of claim 12 , wherein the macro cell device is associated with an existing cell site and the metro cell device is associated with a small cell site located under an umbrella coverage of the macro cell device.

17. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium, comprising executable instructions that, when executed by a processor, facilitate performance of operations, comprising:
partitioning a wireless communication coverage area of a macro cell device into regions; and
based on respective rankings of the regions, generating a recommended location with a highest ranking within the regions for deployment of a metro cell device associated with a first radio frequency power emission that is lower than a second radio frequency power emission of the macro cell device, wherein a first region of the regions corresponds to a first ranking of the respective rankings that has been computed based on a first weighted value of an integer-based scale according to first data that has been received within the first region via a user input, and wherein a second region of the regions corresponds to a second ranking of the respective rankings that has been computed, with respect to a power of a received signal, based on a second weighted value of the integer-based scale according to second data that has been received within the second region without the user input.

18. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 17 , wherein the operations further comprise:
clustering two adjacent subsets of coverage areas based the wireless communication coverage area.

19. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 17 , wherein the operations further comprise:
determining a backhaul link is available at the recommended location, and wherein the backhaul link provides a communication path between the metro cell device and a carrier network device.

20. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 17 , wherein the operations further comprising ranking the regions based on a diffraction of a wireless signal that has been caused by a structure.

Assignees

• At & T Ip I Lp

Inventors

• Puthenpura Sarat
• Jotshi Arun
• Parker Sam Houston
• Raina Ravi
• Zhao Wenjie

Classifications

• H04W16/18 Primary

  Network planning tools · CPC title

• H04W16/32

  Hierarchical cell structures · CPC title