Patent Application
20120295605
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to planning and optimization of a universal mobile telecommunication system (UMTS) based network. In particular, the present invention relates to detecting and reducing interference from several transmitters in a UMTS network.
2. Description of the Related Art
Traditional network planning and optimization of a wireless network relies on static methodologies for finding site locations, dimensioning and configuring the radio resources to meet specified traffic demand. Traditional network optimization methods find the best configuration(s) of the wireless network to maximize the performance, which typically starts with an already working wireless network, followed by analysis and calculations done by engineers using software and hardware tools with extensive simulations of the network. Once a better configuration is determined, the new configuration is manually implemented.
However, manual network optimization consumes a large amount of human resources and is a lengthy process that is performed only when needed or periodically. Therefore, usage of network resource is not maximized, quality of service is degraded and end users or customer satisfaction is reduced.
Additionally, UMTS based wireless networks offer soft handover features that allow a mobile station (MS) to be served by multiple transmitters. The transmitters that serve the MS simultaneously constitute the active set for that MS. However, signals received by the MS that are not sent by the transmitters in the active set are considered interference signals.
Existence of interfering transmitters may lead to reduced network performance by reducing the number useful signals received by mobile stations. Moreover, interfering transmitters may cause pilot pollution, which is a phenomenon that occurs when there are too many potential serving cells to choose from.
Therefore, it would be useful to implement an automated device for reducing interference and maximizing overall network performance.
An embodiment of the invention is directed to a method for reducing interference in interfered cell sites of a wireless communications network, a cell site being a region in which wireless communications are provided to mobile users, and the interfered cell sites being cell sites where mobile users are subject to interference signals from at least one interfering transmitter. Further, the method includes selecting a transmitter from a list of interfering transmitters in need of adjustment and corresponding antennas; and determining a critical zone with respect to the selected transmitter. According to the method, once the transmitter is selected, parameters of the selected transmitter and the associated antenna are altered, and performance of the wireless network in the critical zone and interference by signals being transmitted to the interfered cell sites from the transmitter are monitored.
Moreover, according to the method, the altered parameters may include antenna tilt and transmit power of the transmitter. Altering of the parameters of the transmitter and the antenna can be performed continuously until a desired interference reduction is achieved in the interfered cell sites of the wireless communications network. Additionally, altering of the transmitter parameters can be performed for all the transmitters on the list of interfering transmitters.
An embodiment of the invention is directed to at least one program recorded on a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium for reducing interference in cell sites of a wireless network, wherein the at least one program causes a computer to perform an interference reduction method as described in the previous embodiment.
An embodiment of the invention is directed to an interference reduction apparatus for reducing interference in interfered cell sites of a wireless network including at least one processor and a memory. The memory stores at least one interference reduction program for reducing interference in interfered cell sites of a wireless network, wherein the at least one interference reduction program causes the interference apparatus to perform the interference reduction method discussed above in the previous embodiment.
In the drawings, like reference numbers generally indicate identical, functionally similar and/or structurally similar elements. Embodiments of the invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein:
Additional features are described herein, and will be apparent from the following description of the figures.
In the description that follows, numerous details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the invention. It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that variations of these specific details are possible while still achieving the results of the invention. Well-known elements and processing steps are generally not described in detail in order to avoid unnecessarily obscuring the description of the invention.
In the drawings accompanying the description that follows, often both reference numerals and legends (labels, text descriptions) may be used to identify elements. If legends are provided, they are intended merely as an aid to the reader, and should not in any way be interpreted as limiting.
It should be understood by one of ordinary skill in the art that the connections between the detection and interference reduction apparatus 101 and the one or more network controllers 102, the antenna adjustment apparatus 104 and the network database 110 can be wireless, wired or a combination of wireless and wired. Similarly, it should be understood by one of ordinary skill in the art that the connections between the one or more controllers 102 and the one or more transmitters 103 can be wireless, wired or a combination of wireless and wired.
As seen in
The wireless network 100 offers a soft handover feature that allows a mobile device 106 to be served by multiple transmitters 103. The transmitters 103 that serve mobile device 106 simultaneously constitute the active set for a mobile device 106, and there might be up to, for example, 3 transmitters 103 in an active set with one of the transmitters being the best server to the mobile device 106. Signals received by a mobile device 106 from a transmitter 103 that is not in the active set are considered interference signals from an interfering transmitter 103.
The detection and interference reduction apparatus 101 can be a server or other similar computer device capable of executing one or more algorithms for performing the detection and interference reduction in wireless network 100. A more detailed discussion of the structure of the detection and interference reduction apparatus 101 is noted below with reference to
The controllers 102 illustrated in
Each coverage area behaves as an independent cell site serving its own set of mobile devices 106. For fixed wireless systems, such as IEEE802.16-2004, each coverage area can be used by a single transmitter 103 or plurality of transmitters 103 operating each on a different frequency channel. For mobile systems, subscribers of a single coverage area are served by a single transmitter 103 that can be a single frequency channel for IEEE802.16e-2005 (or UMTS or 1x-EVDO Rev. B and C) or multiple frequency channels that can be supported by IEEE802.16m (or UMTS or 1xEVDO Rev. B and C).
As illustrated in
Referring now to
In steps 206, the detection and interference reduction apparatus 101 excludes from the signal sources determined in step 205, the signal sources included in the active set for each mobile device 106 in the cell site. By excluding the signal sources in the active set, only the interfering signal sources or interfering power remain on a list of signal sources. An active set of signal sources are a set of sources assigned to provide source signals to a mobile device 106 in the cell site, whereas the interfering sources are sources not assigned to provide wireless communication services to a mobile device 106 in the cell site, but whose source signal is still being received by the mobile device 106 (i.e., interfering power).
The list of interfering signal sources may include transmitters 103 that have the highest interference power as measured by the mobile devices 106, transmitters 103 that cause interference in the highest number of mobile devices 106, transmitters 103 that cause interference in the highest number of cells, or transmitters 103 with a highest weight metric assigned. A list of exemplary signals interfering signal sources (i.e., excluding signal sources in an active set) are provided in
In step 207, the RSCP measurements for the interfering signal sources are grouped and summed for each of the signal sources. In step 208, the summed RSCP measurements are sorted for the interfering source signals by the strongest. The strongest signals are determined by the signal strength received by the mobile devices 106. In step 209, it is determined if there are any other cell sites in the network and, if not, a list of transmitters 103 associated with the list of interfering signal sources is generated. The list of transmitters 103 may be based on network configuration information received from the network database 110 or the antenna adjustment apparatus 104. The list of transmitters is considered to include transmitters 103 in need of adjustment by the detection and interference reduction apparatus 101 and the antenna adjustment apparatus 104. In step 209, if it is determined that there are other cells sites on the network, then another cell site is selected in step 202, and the process in steps 203-209 are repeated.
The following is an exemplary implementation of the selection of a problem transmitter 103 causing interference in the wireless network 100 with respect to seven mobile devices 106 (also referred to here as user equipment (UE)). After collecting the interfering source signals (as noted above in steps 202-206), the first five significant interfering signal sources are listed for all mobile devices 106 (e.g., UE1-UE7) in the currently selected cell. That is, the first five significant signal sources are generated by excluding the signal sources in the active set, so that only the interfering signal sources remain. As noted above, an active set of signal sources are a set of sources assigned to provide source signals to a mobile device 106 in the cell site, whereas the interfering sources are sources not assigned to provide wireless communication services to a mobile device 106 in the cell site, but whose source signals are still being received. For the purpose of this example, the interferers (e.g., Interferers I-V) refer to the interfering source signals. Table 1 below contains the interferers for seven mobile devices 106, and in Table 2, the corresponding interference powers are listed.
For the current cell, all sources of interference are identified using the table exemplified in Table 1. Then, the accumulated interference power is found for each of these interferers by simply adding the numbers (in mW) that belong to a specific interferer. These total interference values are sorted and the strongest three interferers, for example, are determined along with the corresponding values. In this example, the interferers that cause interference the most frequently are determined as being transmitted from a problem transmitter 103. However, the interferers can be determined based on interferers that have the highest interference power as measured by the mobile devices 106, interferers that cause interference in the highest number of mobile devices 106, interferers that cause interference in the highest number of cells, or interferers with the highest weight metric assigned. A list of transmitters corresponding to the list of problem interferers is generated. The list of transmitters is generated based on network configuration information received from the network database 110 or the antenna adjustment apparatus 104. The list of transmitters is considered to include transmitters 103 in need of adjustment by the detection and interference reduction apparatus 101 and the antenna adjustment apparatus 104.
Now referring to
In step 304, the detection and interference reduction apparatus 101 makes adjustments to the selected problem transmitter 103 and the corresponding antenna 105 via the controller 102 and antenna adjustment apparatus 104, respectively. Adjustments can be made by altering the antenna parameters such as antenna tilt and transmit power of the transmitter 103. In step 305, after adjustments to the transmitter 103 and the corresponding antenna 105 are made, the performance in the critical zone is monitored by considered performance metrics in the critical zone. For example, the performance metrics can be based on dropped call rate (DCR), which has exceeded certain dropped call rate threshold over a certain observation window of time. An observation window is simply a specified time period such a number or days. The performance metric can also be calculated across specific time slots in different time frames. For example, Mondays to Fridays, Mondays only or Mondays to Fridays morning hours.
In step 306, if performance in the critical zone has degraded, then in step 309, the detection and interference reduction apparatus 101 returns to the best previous configuration of the transmitter 103 and the process ends. In step 306, if performance in the critical zone is not degraded, then in step 307, the average ratio of best server power to the interferer power (the average C/I ratio) measured by interfered mobile devices in the interfered cell sites is determined, where the best server power is the signal power of the best server and the interferer power is the signal power from the transmitter 103. In step 307, if it is determined that the average C/I ratio is improved, then in step 308 it is determined if further adjustments of the transmitter 103 and the antenna 105 are possible and if the improvement in the average C/I ratio has reached the desired level. If further adjustments of the transmitter 103 and the antenna 105 are possible and improvement in the average C/I ratio has not reached the desired level, then further adjustments are made to the transmitter parameters and the antenna parameters as in step 304. As noted above, adjustments are made by altering parameters such as antenna tilt and transmit power of the transmitter 103. However, in step 308, if it is determined that no further adjustments of the transmitter 103 and antenna 105 are possible or the improvement in the average C/I ratio has already reached the desired level, then the detection and interference reduction apparatus 101 returns to the best previous configuration of the transmitter 103 and the process ends. Similarly, in step 307, if it is determined that interference in the cell site is increased as a result of the initial adjustments to the transmitter 103, then the detection and interference reduction apparatus 101 returns to the best previous configuration of the transmitter 103 and the process ends.
As noted above, optimization of the wireless network 100 is performed by utilizing certain metrics considered during monitoring the performance of the wireless network (e.g., in steps 305-309) after making adjustments to a transmitter 103 and an antenna 105 (e.g., in step 304)
Exemplary metrics considered are as follows:
Change in the average best server power to the interferer power ratio (C/I)
Critical Zone average Successful Call Rate (SCR)
Critical Zone average traffic increase for all hours.
The change in the average C/I perceived by the mobiles in the interfered cells is calculated as follows:
C/I_Change=Avg—I/C_Initial−Avg—I/C
where
Avg_I/C=the mean of best server power to the interferer power ratio measured by the mobile devices in the interfered cells during the last n days (converted to dB)
Avg_I/C_Initial=the mean of best server power to the interferer power ratio measured by the mobile devices in the interfered cells during the initial n days (converted to dB).
The average SCR is calculated for the sum of all the services including voice, data and HSDPA calls as follows:
The average increase in the traffic of the critical zone over all hours is calculated as follows:
where,
Traffic_TotWin=Total zone traffic for the last observation window for all hours; and
Traffic_IniTotWin=Total zone traffic for the initial window for all hours.
As noted above, the interference reduction method described above with reference, in particular, to
The average C/I ratio in the interfered cell sites decreases
Significant performance degradation is observed in the critical zone
The desired improvement in the average C/I ratio is obtained
Further downtilting of the problem antenna is not possible.
Optimization of the wireless network 100 is achieved by detecting and reducing interference from problem transmitters 103 and continually searching for better performance even if the performance is only slightly degraded. As a result, the best performance may occur anytime during the interference reduction process (e.g., in
The memory 401 can be computer-readable storage medium used to store executable instructions, or computer program thereon. The memory 401 may include a read-only memory (ROM), random access memory (RAM), programmable read-only memory (PROM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), a smart card, a subscriber identity module (SIM), or any other medium from which a computing device can read executable instructions or a computer program. The term “computer program” is intended to encompass an executable program that exists permanently or temporarily on any computer-readable storage medium as described above.
The computer program is also intended to include an algorithm that includes executable instructions stored in the memory 401 that are executable by one or more processors 402, which may be facilitated by one or more of the application programs 404. The application programs 404 may also include, but are not limited to, an operating system or any special computer program that manages the relationship between application software and any suitable variety of hardware that helps to make-up a computer system or computing environment of the detection and interference reduction apparatus 101. Additionally, the application programs 404 also include one or more interferer detection and interference reduction algorithms for performing the detecting and interference reduction method described with reference to
The user interface 403 allows for interaction between a user and the detection and interference reduction apparatus 101. The user interface 403 may include a keypad, a keyboard, microphone, and/or speakers. The communication interface 405 provides for two-way data communications from the detection and interference reduction apparatus 101. By way of example, the communication interface 405 may be a digital subscriber line (DSL) card or modem, an integrated services digital network (ISDN) card, a cable modem, or a telephone modem to provide a data communication connection to a corresponding type of telephone line. As another example, communication interface 405 may be a local area network (LAN) card (e.g., for Ethernet™ or an Asynchronous Transfer Model (ATM) network) to provide a data communication connection to a compatible LAN.
Further, the communication interface 405 may also include peripheral interface devices, such as a Universal Serial Bus (USB) interface, a Personal Computer Memory Card International Association (PCMCIA) interface, and the like. The communication interface 405 also allows the exchange of information across one or more wireless communication networks. Such networks may include cellular or short-range, such as IEEE 802.11 wireless local area networks (WLANS). And, the exchange of information may involve the transmission of radio frequency (RF) signals through an antenna (not shown).
From the description provided herein, those skilled in the art are readily able to combine software created as described with the appropriate general purpose or special purpose computer hardware for carrying out the features of the invention.
Additionally, it should be understood that various changes and modifications to the presently preferred embodiments described herein will be apparent to those skilled in the art. Such changes and modifications can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the present subject matter and without diminishing its intended advantages. It is therefore intended that such changes and modifications be covered by the appended claim.
This is a continuation application of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/110,205, filed on May 18, 2011.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | 13110205 | May 2011 | US |
| Child | 13118823 | US |
