Controlling base station power status based on quality of service load

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9877253-B1
Application number	US-201615204320-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Jul 7, 2016
Priority date	Apr 1, 2014
Publication date	Jan 23, 2018
Grant date	Jan 23, 2018

Abstract

A radio access network (RAN) may determine that a quality-of-service (QOS) load of a first base station exceeds a QOS load high threshold. The RAN may further determine that a set of wireless communication devices (WCDs) served by the first base station are located within a geographic area nearby a second base station. The RAN may additionally determine that the set of WCDs are responsible for at least a predefined portion of the QOS load of the first base station, and may power on the second base station. If at some point a second QOS load of the second base station falls below a QOS load low threshold, the RAN may facilitate handover of at least one of the WCDs served by the second base station from the second base station to the first base station, and may power off the second base station.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
determining a first traffic load of a first base station and a second traffic load of a second base station, wherein the first and second base stations are components of a radio access network (RAN) that provides wireless service to wireless communication devices (WCDs), and wherein WCDs served by the second base station are located within a geographic area covered by the first base station, wherein a particular traffic load of a particular WCD served by the first base station is based on (i) a recently-measured or projected air interface signal-to-noise ratio of the particular WCD, and (ii) a minimum air interface bit rate guaranteed to the particular WCD by the RAN;
determining that (i) the second traffic load is below a traffic load low threshold, and (ii) the first base station can support the second traffic load in addition to the first traffic load;
in response to determining that (i) the second traffic load is below a traffic load low threshold, and (ii) the first base station can support the second traffic load in addition to the first traffic load, instructing, by the RAN, the second base station to handover at least one of the WCDs served by the second base station to the first base station; and
causing the second base station to power down after at least one handover completes.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein causing the second base station to power down after at least one handover completes comprises causing the second base station to power down after all handovers complete.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein causing the second base station to power down after at least one handover completes comprises causing the second base station to power off before all handovers complete.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein instructing the second base station to handover at least one of the WCDs served by the second base station to the first base station comprises instructing the second base station to sequentially handover two or more WCDs served by the second base station to the first base station, wherein between sequential pairs of handovers, the RAN obtains respective updated traffic loads of the first base station, wherein the RAN ends the sequence of handovers when a respective updated traffic load exceeds a traffic load high threshold, and wherein the traffic load high threshold is higher than the traffic load low threshold.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first traffic load is a first quality-of-service (QOS) load that represents air interface resources of the first base station assigned to WCDs served by the first base station, and wherein the second traffic load is a second quality-of-service (QOS) load that represents air interface resources of the second base station assigned to WCDs served by the second base station.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the first base station has dedicated air interface resource blocks to at least some of the WCDs served by the first base station, and wherein the first QOS load is based on a ratio of the dedicated air interface resource blocks to a total number of air interface resource blocks available to the first base station.

7. The method of claim 5 , wherein the first base station has dedicated air interface resource blocks to at least some of the WCDs served by the first base station, and wherein the first QOS load is based on a ratio of air interface capacity represented by the dedicated air interface resource blocks to air interface capacity represented by a total number of air interface resource blocks available to the first base station.

8. The method of claim 5 , wherein a particular QOS load of the particular WCD is based on the greater of (i) a forward-direction QOS load of the particular WCD, and (ii) a reverse-direction QOS load of the particular WCD.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first base station is a macro-cellular base station and the second base station is a pico-cellular base station, wherein the first base station provides macro wireless coverage that exceeds the geographic area defined by the wireless coverage of the second base station.

10. An article of manufacture including a non-transitory computer-readable medium, having stored thereon program instructions that, upon execution by a computing device, cause the computing device to perform operations comprising:
determining a first traffic load of a first base station and a second traffic load of a second base station, wherein the first base station, second base station, and computing device are components of a radio access network (RAN) that provides wireless service to wireless communication devices (WCDs), and wherein the WCDs served by the second base station are located within a geographic area covered by the first base station, wherein a particular traffic load of a particular WCD served by the first base station is based on (i) a recently-measured or projected air interface signal-to-noise ratio of the particular WCD, and (ii) a minimum air interface bit rate guaranteed to the particular WCD by the RAN;
determining that (i) the second traffic load is below a traffic load low threshold, and (ii) the first base station can support the second traffic load in addition to the first traffic load;
in response to determining that (i) the second traffic load is below a traffic load low threshold, and (ii) the first base station can support the second traffic load in addition to the first traffic load, instructing the second base station to handover at least one of the WCDs served by the second base station to the first base station; and
causing the second base station to power down after at least one handover completes.

11. The article of manufacture of claim 10 , wherein causing the second base station to power down after at least one handover completes comprises causing the second base station to power down after all handovers complete.

12. The article of manufacture of claim 10 , wherein causing the second base station to power down after at least one handover completes comprises causing the second base station to power off before all handovers complete.

13. The article of manufacture of claim 10 , wherein instructing the second base station to handover at least one of the WCDs served by the second base station to the first base station comprises instructing the second base station to sequentially handover two or more WCDs served by the second base station to the first base station, wherein between sequential pairs of handovers, the computing device obtains respective updated traffic loads of the first base station, wherein the computing device ends the sequence of handovers when a respective updated traffic load exceeds a traffic load high threshold, and wherein the traffic load high threshold is higher than the traffic load low threshold.

14. The article of manufacture of claim 10 , wherein the first traffic load is a first quality-of-service (QOS) load that represents air interface resources of the first base station assigned to WCDs served by the first base station, and wherein the second traffic load is a second quality-of-service (QOS) load that represents air interface resources of the second base station assigned to WCDs served by the second base station.

15. The article of manufacture of claim 14 , wherein the first base station has dedicated air interface resource blocks to at least some of the WCDs served by the first base station, and wherein the first QOS load is based on a ratio of air interface capacity represented by the dedicated air interface resource blocks to air interface capacity represented by a total number of air interface

Assignees

• Clearwire Ip Holdings Llc
• Sprint Spectrum Lp

Inventors

• Liu Chunmei
• Sitaram Krishna
• Pawar Hemanth B
• Vivanco Daniel

Classifications

• H04W36/22 Primary

  for handling the traffic · CPC title

• H04W28/0289

  Congestion control (load shedding arrangements in network planning H04W16/08; performing reselection for handling the traffic H04W36/22; wireless traffic scheduling H04W72/12) · CPC title

• H04W52/265 Primary

  taking into account the quality of service QoS · CPC title

• H04W52/0206

  in access points, e.g. base stations · CPC title

• H04L47/12

  Avoiding congestion; Recovering from congestion · CPC title