The present invention relates generally to communications and, in particular, to detection of coverage problems in wireless communication systems.
Over time, and especially after a storm with strong winds, base station antennas may go out of alignment. See, for example, wireless network 200 in
Specific embodiments of the present invention are disclosed below with reference to
Simplicity and clarity in both illustration and description are sought to effectively enable a person of skill in the art to make, use, and best practice the present invention in view of what is already known in the art. One of skill in the art will appreciate that various modifications and changes may be made to the specific embodiments described below without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. Thus, the specification and drawings are to be regarded as illustrative and exemplary rather than restrictive or all-encompassing, and all such modifications to the specific embodiments described below are intended to be included within the scope of the present invention.
The present invention can be more fully understood with reference to
To provide a greater degree of detail in making and using various aspects of the present invention, a description of our approach to wireless coverage gap detection and a description of certain, quite specific, embodiments follows for the sake of example.
The basic idea underlying some of the embodiments described herein is to use the measurement reporting capability of a subscriber handset coupled with its GPS location reporting capability to create several service maps in a normal operation mode. These maps include subscriber usage maps and RF coverage maps (such as pilot Ec maps, pilot Ec/Io maps, channel quality index (CQI) maps, etc.). These normal operation maps are stored for reference, while current operation maps are created using data collected during the current operation period. Network equipment compares current operation maps with their corresponding normal operation maps. If any abnormality is detected, the operator is notified so that actions can be taken immediately to achieve a quick recovery.
These embodiments utilize the reporting capabilities of mobiles (or perhaps fixed wireless units) to generate service maps. In the case of low traffic periods when mobile stations are not actively making phone calls or transmitting data, the network may page units to acquire real-time reports for use in generating a current operation map.
Network equipment such as a server collects measurement and location information, and associates the information geographically into bins, i.e., geo-bins. For example, a geo-bin may be a 10 meter by 10 meter geographical area. The map information for a given geo-bin is computed based on the reports associated with locations falling within that geo-bin. A given service map contains a collection of a certain type (or types) of information associated with each geo-bin included in the map. For example, an RF coverage map may comprise pilot Ec/Io measurements binned geographically, while a usage map may comprise information about traffic patterns binned geographically. The maps may also contain information indicating their time period of collection or may be binned by or their period of collection. For example, this time information or binning may be based upon or indicate a time-of-day, day-of-the-week, time-of-the month, and/or time-of-the-year during which the information was collected.
In some embodiments, the normal operation maps include RF coverage maps and end mobile usage maps. The RF coverage maps can be generated by using drive test data or by using mobile over-the-air RF measurement reports during a normal operation period. This information is coupled with location information indicating where the measurement was collected. The mobile usage maps are created during different periods of the normal operation hours/days/weeks. For a given serving cell/sector the set of mobile usage maps create a usage profile. For example during the weekend, a given geographic bin has a very low voice usage (0.1 Erlangs, as an example). The same location during a weekday busy hour may have a much higher voice usage (1 Erlangs, as an example).
Step 1) Create reference normal service maps during drive tests, for example, and store it for future usage. See RF coverage map 300 in
Step 2) Create service maps for current operation period. See RF coverage map 400 in
Step 3) Compare the current service map with the reference normal operations service map.
Step 4) If the difference in RF coverage between these two maps exceeds a certain threshold, then go to next step, otherwise go to step 2. For example, see a geo-binned mapping 500 in
Step 5) If the cell has an outage then go step 7. Otherwise (i.e., if the cell has antenna out of alignment or other antenna related problems), go to next step.
Step 6) Check antenna alignment, test antenna functionality. After re-alignments of antennas or fixing broken down antennas, go to step 2, (which recreates service maps after fixing the antenna problems and repeats the checking of current service maps with normal operation maps).
Step 7) Fix cell outage and go to step 2.
The detailed and, at times, very specific description above is provided to effectively enable a person of skill in the art to make, use, and best practice the present invention in view of what is already known in the art. In the examples, specifics are provided for the purpose of illustrating possible embodiments of the present invention and should not be interpreted as restricting or limiting the scope of the broader inventive concepts.
Benefits, other advantages, and solutions to problems have been described above with regard to specific embodiments of the present invention. However, the benefits, advantages, solutions to problems, and any element(s) that may cause or result in such benefits, advantages, or solutions, or cause such benefits, advantages, or solutions to become more pronounced are not to be construed as a critical, required, or essential feature or element of any or all the claims.
As used herein and in the appended claims, the term “comprises,” “comprising,” or any other variation thereof is intended to refer to a non-exclusive inclusion, such that a process, method, article of manufacture, or apparatus that comprises a list of elements does not include only those elements in the list, but may include other elements not expressly listed or inherent to such process, method, article of manufacture, or apparatus. The terms a or an, as used herein, are defined as one or more than one. The term plurality, as used herein, is defined as two or more than two. The term another, as used herein, is defined as at least a second or more. Unless otherwise indicated herein, the use of relational terms, if any, such as first and second, top and bottom, and the like are used solely to distinguish one entity or action from another entity or action without necessarily requiring or implying any actual such relationship or order between such entities or actions.
The terms including and/or having, as used herein, are defined as comprising (i.e., open language). The term coupled, as used herein, is defined as connected, although not necessarily directly, and not necessarily mechanically. Terminology derived from the word “indicating” (e.g., “indicates” and “indication”) is intended to encompass all the various techniques available for communicating or referencing the object/information being indicated. Some, but not all, examples of techniques available for communicating or referencing the object/information being indicated include the conveyance of the object/information being indicated, the conveyance of an identifier of the object/information being indicated, the conveyance of information used to generate the object/information being indicated, the conveyance of some part or portion of the object/information being indicated, the conveyance of some derivation of the object/information being indicated, and the conveyance of some symbol representing the object/information being indicated. The terms program, computer program, and computer instructions, as used herein, are defined as a sequence of instructions designed for execution on a computer system. This sequence of instructions may include, but is not limited to, a subroutine, a function, a procedure, an object method, an object implementation, an executable application, an applet, a servlet, a shared library/dynamic load library, a source code, an object code and/or an assembly code.