Patent Application
20090149170
The present invention relates to a user terminal for use in a cellular telecommunications system as defined in the preamble of claim 1, a control node for use in a cellular telecommunications system as defined in the preamble of claim 7, and a method for selecting at least one downlink channel in a cellular telecommunications system as defined in the preamble of claim 12.
In cellular telecommunications systems it is desirable to use the available bandwidth as efficiently as possible. This includes selecting the best communication channel for each connection. To achieve this, in many systems each user terminal measures parameters indicative of the downlink signalling quality in available channels and reports the values of these parameters to units in the network, such as an access point (base station) or a control node. These parameter values are then used when selecting communication channels.
In an OFDMA based system the available channel bandwidth is sub-divided into several sub-channels, or “chunks”. A sub-channel is usually a two-dimensional concept, defined both in time and frequency, that is, a time-frequency resource. A sub-channel is the smallest allocatable part of the frequency bandwidth in the system. Each sub-channel, or chunk, has a bandwidth of approximately 200 kHz and in turn comprises of orthogonal sub-carriers. An OFDMA based system typically has 50-100 sub-channels, or chunks, per channel bandwidth per access point (AP).
Each user terminal performs measurements of the downlink channel quality on each channel and reports the measured channel quality to the network. Various types of measurements can be carried out by the terminal, such as channel quality indicator (CQI), received signal strength indicator (RSSI), UE transmit power, signal to interference and noise ratio (SINR). The CQI, RSSI or SINR can be measured by the terminal on pilot symbols or any other suitable measurable signal that can depict the downlink instantaneous (short-term) or long-term channel quality. Based on the reported measurements from the terminals, the network can dynamically allocate the chunks to transmit data to the users in the downlink or to perform other types of radio resource management tasks, such as handover.
The measurements can be reported by the user terminal directly to the access point (AP) or to the centralized controller such as a radio network controller (RNC). Certain measurements, such as CQI and RSSI, are to be reported directly to the AP using in-band signalling for fast scheduling. As mentioned above, in OFDMA systems, each access point can have as many as 100 channels. Also the interleaving time is very short, less than 1 ms and the reports must be sent once for each interleaving time to track the instantaneous channel quality. Therefore, the measurement reporting mechanisms currently used would lead to considerable signalling overhead in the uplink.
It is an object of the present invention to reduce the signalling overhead in cellular communication systems.
This object is achieved according to the present invention by a user terminal for use in a cellular network for communicating with an access point in the cellular network, said user terminal comprising means for performing measurements on downlink channels received from the access point and means for reporting information about the result of these measurements to a node in the cellular network, said user terminal being characterized in that it comprises means for calculating a report value as a function of each measurement value and in that the reporting means is arranged to report the report values instead of the actual measurement values.
The object is also achieved by a control node for use in a cellular network, said node being arranged to control communication in said cellular network, and comprising means for receiving from a user terminal in the network information about measurement values obtained by the user terminal regarding downlink channels between the node and the user terminal, said node comprising means for selecting, in dependence of the information received from the user terminal, at least one channel on which to communicate with the terminal, said node being characterized in that the receiving means is arranged to receive information about each measurement value as a report value that is a function of said measurement value.
The object is also achieved by a method for selecting at least one downlink channel comprising of pilot symbols or another suitable measurable signal sent by an access node in the downlink in the cellular network, comprising the steps of
performing measurements in the user terminal regarding downlink channels received from the access node,
reporting information about measurement values from the user terminal to a control node in the cellular network,
selecting at least one downlink channel in dependence of the reported information, said method being characterized by
calculating a report value as a function of each measurement value and reporting the report value instead of the actual measurement value.
The inventive solution enables the reduction of overhead traffic between the user terminal and the network since the report value can be represented by fewer bits than the measurement value. By reducing the number of bits required to report each measurement value the bandwidth requirement for signalling can be reduced.
In a preferred embodiment the user terminal also comprises memory means for storing a maximum value γmax for the measurement, wherein the calculating means is arranged to calculate the report values as a function of the maximum value γmax. The function used in the method is then a function of the maximum value γmax.
The user terminal may further comprise means for receiving the value maximum value γmax from a control node in the network. In this case the node further comprises means for setting a maximum value γmax as a maximum value for a measurement value and means for reporting said maximum value γmax to the user terminal.
In a preferred embodiment the user terminal further comprises means for selecting the k best measurement values, k being a positive integer, wherein the calculating means is arranged to calculate report values only for the k best measurement values and the reporting means is arranged to report only information about the k best measurement values to the control node.
In this case the method further comprises selecting the k best measurement values and reporting only the k best measurement values to the control node.
This enables a further reduction of the bandwidth needed for signalling, since the number of measurement values, or report values, to be transmitted through the network may be significantly reduced. Of course, this embodiment may be used on its own, that is, the measurement values may be selected and reported without calculating report values first.
The user terminal may further comprise means for identifying any measurement values above a threshold value γmin while the calculating means is arranged to calculate report values only for the measurement values above the threshold value γmin and the reporting means is arranged to report only measurement values above the threshold value γmin. In this case, the method further comprises identifying the measurement values that are above a minimum threshold γmin and reporting only the measurement values that are above the minimum threshold γmin.
If the values k and γmin are received from the network, the user terminal further comprises means for receiving a value for k and/or a value for γmin from a node in the network. In this case the node further comprises means for setting a value k for the number of measurement values to be reported by the user terminal and/or a minimum threshold value γmin determining the lowest measurement value that is to be reported from the user terminal and means for reporting the set value or values to the user terminal, and means for reporting the set value or values to the user terminal.
The reporting means may be arranged to report the set value or values in a broadcast message. Alternatively, the reporting means is arranged to report the set value or values to the user terminal on a dedicated logical channel.
The control node may be the access point or a control node such as an RNC.
According to a second aspect of the invention the object is achieved by a user terminal for use in a cellular network for communicating with an access point in the cellular network, said user terminal comprising means for performing measurements on downlink channels received from the access point and means for reporting measurement values from these measurements to a control node in the cellular network, said user terminal being characterized in that it comprises memory means for storing a positive integer k indicating the maximum number of measurement values to be reported from the user terminal, and
means for selecting the k best measurement values,
and in that the reporting means is arranged to report only information about the k best measurement values to the control node.
The memory means is preferably arranged to store a threshold value γmin, the selecting means is arranged to identify any measurement values below the threshold value γmin and the reporting means is arranged to report only measurement values above the threshold value γmin.
The value k and/or the threshold value γmin may be received from a control node in the network.
According to this second aspect the object is also achieved by a control node for use in a cellular network, said node being arranged to control communication in said cellular network, and comprising means for receiving from a user terminal in the network information about measurement values obtained by the user terminal regarding downlink channels between the network and the user terminal, said node comprising means for selecting, in dependence of the information received from the user terminal, at least one channel on which to communicate with the terminal, said node being characterized in that it comprises means for setting a value k for the number of measurement values to be reported by the user terminal and/or a minimum threshold value γmin determining the lowest measurement value that is to be reported from the user terminal and means for reporting the set value or values to the user terminal.
The reporting means may be arranged to report the set value or values in a broadcast message or on a dedicated logical channel or another suitable logical channel.
According to the second aspect the invention also relates to a method for selecting at least one downlink channel in a cellular network for signalling between an access node and a user terminal in the cellular network, comprising the steps of
performing measurements in the user terminal regarding the downlink channels received from the access node,
reporting information about measurement values from the user terminal to a control node in the cellular network,
selecting at least one downlink channel in dependence of the reported information, said method being characterized by selecting the k best measurement values and reporting only the k best measurement values to the control node.
The method preferably further comprises identifying the measurement values that are above a minimum threshold γmin and reporting only the measurement values that are above the minimum threshold γmin.
Although the discussion above used an OFDMA system as a starting point, the invention can advantageously be applied telecommunications systems using any other access technology in which the sending of information is dependent on feedback from the receiver, including FDMA and TDMA.
The present invention will be described in more detail in the following, by way of example, with reference to the appended drawings, in which:
According to a first embodiment of the invention the signalling overhead is reduced by reducing the number of channels for which each terminal reports quality measurement parameters. The control node 7 and/or the access point 3 comprises a parameter setting unit 9, 13, respectively, for setting parameter values for certain system parameters as required, and reporting means 10, 14, respectively, for reporting these parameters to the user terminal 5. The parameters k, γmin and γmax and how to set them will be discussed in detail below. As in conventional systems, the control node 7 and/or the access point 3 also comprises a unit for selecting the downlink channel to use when communicating with a user terminal. This selection is performed based on reports of measurements carried out by the user terminal. The measurement reports are received and handled in a receiving unit 11 in the control node 7 and/or in a receiving unit 15 in the base station 3.
In its simplest form in this embodiment the network, that is, the access point or the control node, defines a digit k indicating the number of channels for which the terminal should report measurements. The terminal selects the k best channels, sorts them in the decreasing order of magnitude and reports the values for these channels to the network. Since the channel to be used for communication is practically always selected among the best channels (for example, the 10 best channels), this reduces the signalling overhead without reducing the overall performance of the cellular network.
The network can also define a measurement threshold γmin specifying the lowest acceptable level for each type of measurement. Either all measurement values above the measurement threshold γmin may be reported to the network, or the threshold may be combined with the number k of best channels. In the latter case, if the measurements for a number i of the k best channels are below the measurement threshold γmin these i channels will also not be reported. In this case, the number of channels for which measurement data must be reported can be reduced even further, to k−i in the cases when only a few of the available channels fulfil the minimum requirements for setting up a connection.
The system parameters used in this first embodiment, that is, the number of best channels (k) and the minimum measurement threshold γmin, are decided by the network and can be based on the amount of data in the buffer, the overall traffic, the quality of service, etc. As an example, for real-time services such as real-time video or speech the traffic condition (buffer status) can be used by the network to predict the average bit rate and the corresponding transport format. This will allow the network to decide the number of chunks required and the minimum quality level (γmin).
The number of channels for which a terminal is to report may also be based on the number of channels needed by this terminal for a connection. This number of channels may be determined by the network based on the type of service requested and the quality of the channels, which is known to the network. The network can also use measurement data reported by other terminals to determine the quality of the channels; however, these measurements will represent the channels experienced by the terminal that reports them and will not necessarily be representative for the quality experienced by other terminals. The measurements reported by some terminals to determine the channel quality of other terminals that do not report measurements, can be useful in scenarios where terminals are following similar radio conditions (e.g. similar shadowing, fading profile, user speed, etc).
A second embodiment of the embodiment uses differential reporting of measured data. This reduces the signalling overhead by reducing the amount of data that must be reported for each measured parameter. This is especially useful for parameters that have a very large dynamic range, such as RSSI. A large dynamic range means that each parameter value will require a large number of bits, thereby generating a relatively large signalling overhead compared to a parameter having a smaller dynamic range.
According to this second embodiment the maximum possible value γmax is determined for each parameter. The actual parameter value is reported as a function of γmax or of a previously reported value. As the skilled person will understand, this can be achieved in a large number of ways, some of which will be discussed below.
Let the sub-channels, or chunks, for which parameter values should be reported, be identified as [φ1,φ2, . . . , φk]. This may include all sub-channels, or the k or k−i best sub-channels as selected above. The measured values for these sub-channels are [α1,α2, . . . , αk]. According to the second embodiment the user terminal reports the sub-channel ID and the differential measurements [β1,β2, . . . , βk] to the access point.
The differential measurements [β1,β2, . . . βk] may, for example, be determined according to the following:
β1=α1−γmax; β2=α1−α2; βk=αk-1−αk
Alternatively, the differential measurements [β1,β2, . . . , βk] may be determined according to the following:
β1=α1−γmax; β2=α2−γmax; βk=αk−γmax
In the two examples given above, the function used includes subtraction. The function could also be based on division, for example in the following way:
β1=α1/γmax; β2=α1/α2; βk=αk-1/αk
or
β1=α1/γmax; β2=α2/γmax; βk=αk/γmax
The important thing is that the function enables the parameter to be reported using fewer bits than by reporting the actual parameter value, and any function that achieves this could be used.
The system parameter used in this embodiment, γmax, can either be a fixedly standardized value known to the terminal or a variable that can be set by the network.
The first and second embodiments disclosed above may be used individually, as described above, or together. In the latter case, the parameters for the k, or k−i, best channels are reported in a differential way.
In both the embodiments described above, the system parameters, k, γmin, γmax may be stored in the terminal as default values or may be signalled from the network to the terminal. The signalling may be performed in several different ways as will be discussed in the following.
The system parameters could be indicated using any of the following options:
The reconfiguration of the system parameters will normally be performed when a call is to be set up. It may also be performed during a call, for example if the type of service is to be changed. The broadcast message could also be used to update the parameters of a terminal in idle state. This will in effect mean setting of new default values.
According to the first main embodiment the user terminal also comprises selecting means 25 for selecting the measurement values that are to be reported from the user terminal to the network to reduce the signalling overhead. The selecting means 25 is preferably arranged to select the k best measurement values so that the transmitting means can transmit only the k best measurement values to the network. Alternatively, or in addition, the selecting means 25 may be arranged to identify measurement values that are above a threshold value γmin so that measurement values below the threshold value γmin will not be reported to the network. The parameters k and γmin are stored in a memory means 26.
According to the second main embodiment the user terminal also comprises calculating means 27 for calculating a report value as a function of the measurement value. In this case, the memory means 26 also comprises the maximum value γmax as discussed above. The report value is representative of the measurement value but needs fewer bits. In this embodiment the transmitting means 21 will transmit the report value instead of the measurement value, thereby reducing the signalling overhead.
As discussed, the two embodiments can be combined, so that the calculating means 27 only calculates the k best values, or the values above the threshold value γmin and the transmitting means 21 will report to the network the report values only for the selected channels, instead of the measurement values for these channels. In this case, the memory unit will comprise all three system parameters, k, γmin and γmax. Of course, the mobile terminal will comprise other logical units as well. These are well known in the art and are not relevant for the present invention and will therefore not be discussed here.
In step S2 the mobile terminal performs measurements indicating the downlink channel quality, for example in terms of the CQI, RSSI, transmit power, SINR etc.
In step S3 the mobile terminal selects the best channels, determined by the result of the measurements performed in step S2. As discussed above, the number k of channels to be selected may be determined by a default value stored in the mobile terminal or may, alternatively, be signalled to the mobile terminal the network, e.g. an access point, or from a control node. The signalling may be sent directly to the concerned user terminal by the access point or by the central node, or the signalling can be broadcasted to all the terminals by the access point.
In step S4 the mobile terminal compares the measurement values to a minimum threshold γmin and discards the ones that are below the minimum threshold.
Either step S3 or S4 may be used to reduce the number of measurement values to be reported, or they may be used together, as shown in the flow chart.
In step S5 the mobile terminal reports the measurement values to the network. If step S3 to reduce the number of measurement values is used the k best values are reported. If step S4 to reduce the number of measurement values is used all measurement values above the minimum threshold γmin are reported. If steps S3 and S4 are used together the k best values are selected. Then among these k values any values that are below the minimum threshold γmin are discarded. In this case if all the k best measurement values are above the minimum threshold γmin k values will be reported from the mobile terminal to the network. If a number i of the k best measurement values are below the minimum threshold, the k−i best values will be reported.
In step S6 the control node, or the access point in the network, uses the reported measurement data to select one or more channels to use when transmitting signalling or data to the mobile terminal.
In step S12 the mobile terminal performs measurements indicating the downlink channel quality, for example, in terms of the CQI, RSSI, transmit power, SINR etc.
In step S13 the mobile terminal calculates a function of the measured data. The function may be as described above, or any function may be used as long as the resulting value from the function requires fewer bits than the measured data to be reported to the network.
In step S14 the mobile terminal reports the resulting value of the function to the network.
In step S15 the control node, or the access point in the network uses the reported measurement data to select one or more channels to use when signalling to the mobile terminal. This may involve calculations on the reported values to retrieve the original measurement values.
The method illustrated in
Such a combination will reduce further the bandwidth needed for signalling between the mobile terminal and the network.
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/SE2005/001579 | 10/21/2005 | WO | 00 | 10/31/2008 |
