The present invention relates generally to the field of wireless communication, and more particularly to method for allocating transport channels for Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service (MBMS) and apparatus and system associated therewith.
Indisputably, tomorrow's mobile marketplace will be characterized by bandwidth-hungry multimedia services that are already experienced in wired networks. Based on this situation, MBMS was introduced in the R6 of UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunication System) in order to deliver multimedia data from a single source entity to multiple destinations. MBMS is envisaged to play an essential role for further rich multimedia services. So the key goal of MBMS is to provide multimedia services in an efficient way.
The main requirement during the provision of MBMS services is to make an efficient overall usage of radio and network resources. That is to say, a wireless network that provides MBMS services should conceive and adapt to continuous changes occurring in dynamic wireless environments and optimally allocate resources. Accordingly, a critical aspect of MBMS performance is to select a most efficient transport channel for transmission of MBMS data.
MBMS specification 3GPP TS 25.346 adopts two transmission modes, i.e. Point-to-Point (PTP) Transmission and Point-to-Multipoint (PTM) Transmission, to provide MBMS service. In PTP transmission, for a UE in CELL_FACH and CELL_DCH status, DCCH (Dedicated Control Channel) or DTCH (Dedicated Traffic Channel) may be used, allowing all existing mappings to transport channels. In PTM transmission, FACH (Forward Access Channel) is used as a transport channel for logical channels MTCH (MBMS point-to-multipoint Traffic Channel), MSCH (MBMS point-to-multipoint Scheduling Channel) and MCCH (MBMS point-to-multipoint Control Channel).
MBMS specification 3GPP TS 25.346 considers a so called Counting Mechanism and uses this Counting Mechanism to determine whether it is more efficient to deploy PTP bearers, e.g. DCH (Dedicated Channel) or HS-DSCH, or PTM bearers, e.g. FACH, for a given MBMS service. Current specifications of Counting Mechanism use a static switching point between PTP and PTM modes, which switching point is determined based on the number of counted MBMS users in a cell. For example, the MBMS control function may decide to establish a PTM connection if the number of counted MBMS users in the cell exceeds a certain pre-defined threshold. However, the Counting Mechanism fails to achieve an efficient radio resource allocation, because it is impossible to accurately abstract the complex wireless environment and user service profiles by a single parameter, i.e. the number of UEs. Therefore, the Counting Mechanism suffers from inefficiency and may waste significant power resources due to the lack of any adaptive functionality.
An object of the present invention is to provide an improved method, apparatus and system for allocating transport channels for Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service, which obviates at least some of the above-mentioned disadvantages.
According to a first aspect of the present invention, the present invention provides a method for allocating transport channels to provide Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service MBMS services to one or more User Equipments UEs in a cell of a wireless network. The method comprises obtaining parameters including a rate required by a MBMS service and a location factor indicating location of a UE in the cell, determining power cost of providing the MBMS service to the UE for each of types of transport channels available in the cell based on at least the required service rate and the location factor, and selecting a type of transport channel that has a minimum power cost to provide the MBMS service to the UE.
Preferably, the types of transport channels available in the cell include Forward Access Channel FACH, Dedicated Control Channel DCH, and High Speed-Downlink Shared Channel HS-DSCH.
Preferably, determination of the power cost for HS-DSCH comprises getting a throughput of a HS-DSCH channel for the location factor, estimating a proportion of HS-DSCH resource occupied by the MBMS service based on a ratio of the required service rate to the gotten throughput, and determining the power cost for the HS-DSCH channel based on a power level assigned to the HS-DSCH channel and the determined proportion of HS-DSCH resource occupied.
Preferably, determination of the power cost for FACH comprises estimating a power level for a FACH channel based on the required service rate and the location factor, and determining the power cost for the FACH channel based on the estimated power level and the number of UEs that are served by the FACH channel at the estimated power level.
Preferably, determination of the power cost for DCH comprises estimating a power level for a DCH channel based on the required service rate and the location factor, and determining the power cost for the DCH channel based on the estimated power level.
Preferably, determination of the power costs for HS-DSCH, FACH, DCH comprises calculating the power costs as follows:
C
HS
=P
HS*(R/Th(L));
C
FACH
=P
FACH(L,R)*(TS/Nslot)NUE,and
C
DCH
=P
DCH(L,R);
where CHS, CFACH, CDCH designate power costs for HS-DSCH, FACH and DCH respectively, PHS, PFACH, PDCH designate power levels for HS-DSCH, FACH and DCH respectively, R is the required service rate, L is the location factor, Th(L) is the throughput of the HS-DSCH channel with respect to the location factor L, TS refers to the number of time slots per frame to be occupied by the MBMS service, Nslot refers to the total number of time slots per frame, and NUE is the number of UEs served by the FACH channel at PFACH.
Preferably, the location factor is expressed as a ratio of signal power received at the UE to signal power transmitted by a base station that serves the cell.
Preferably, the allocation of transport channels is triggered when a new UE requests the MBMS service or an existing UE quits from the MBMS service. In addition or alternatively, the allocation of transport channels is triggered at a time interval.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, the present invention provides a Radio Network Controller RNC for allocating transport channels to provide Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service MBMS services to one or more UEs in a cell of a wireless network. The RNC comprises an obtaining unit being configured to obtain parameters including a rate required by the MBMS service and a location factor indicating location of a UE in the cell, a determining unit being configured to determine power cost of providing the MBMS service to the UE for each type of transport channels available in the cell based on at least the required service rate and the location factor, and a selector being configured to select a type of transport channel that has a minimum power cost to provide the MBMS service to the UE.
According to a third aspect of the present invention, the present invention provides a wireless communication system comprising the above Radio Network Controller according to the present invention.
With the present invention, parameters like required service rate R and location factor L of UE are considered when allocating transport channels for MBMS services, which enables the transport channel allocation more adaptive to required service and dynamic wireless environment. Since it is always the transport channel that has the minimum post cost is selected for providing the requested MBMS service, the efficiency of power usage, overall cell throughput and service quality are improved. According to the present invention, it also enables to use PTP and PTM Transmission at the same time in one cell.
The foregoing and other objects, features, and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following description of preferred embodiments and accompany drawings.
In the following description, for purposes of explanation rather than limitation, specific details, such as the particular architecture, interfaces, techniques, etc., are set forth for illustration. However, it will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art that other embodiments that depart from these specific details would still be understood to be within the scope of the present invention. Moreover, for the purpose of clarity, detailed descriptions of well-known devices, circuits, and methods are omitted so as not to obscure the description of the present invention. It should be expressly understood that the drawings are included for illustrative purposes and do not represent the scope of the present invention. In the accompanying drawings, like reference numbers in different drawings may designate similar elements.
Assuming a situation where UEs request a high bit rate MBMS service such as a HD (High Definition) video, and the required cell throughput is TMBMS as shown in
As shown in
The root cause of above problems is that it is not sufficient to take account of only the number of UEs in the cell when allocating transport channels.
According to the present invention, at least required service rate R and location factor L that indicates the location of a UE in a cell, e.g. the distance between base station and UE, are considered to allocate the transport channels
In cell 110, there are a number of UEs 101-107 that request a MBMS service from the wireless network. When receiving the requests, a RNC of the wireless network starts to allocate transport channels to different UEs 101-107.
In step 310, parameters including rate required by the requested MBMS service and location factors of respective UEs are obtained. These parameters may be gotten from the wireless network. For example, the required service rate R could be gotten from “MBMS Session Start Request” which is sent from CN (Core Network) to RNC at MBMS session start. As is known, a MBMS session will be started to provide the MBMS service to a UE. A location factor of a UE indicates the location of the UE in the cell, for example, the location may be represented by distance between the base station and the UE. According to one embodiment, the distance is measured by a value of CPICH_RSCP (Common Pilot Channel Received Signal Code Power)/CPICH_Tx_Power. CPICH_RSCP represents the signal power/strength received by the UE, and UE will measure this power and report it to the base station. CPICH_Tx_Power represents the power transmitted by the base station, and is in general configured in the base station. As will be appreciated, said value of CPICH_RSCP/CPICH_Tx_Power will decrease as the distance increases.
In step 320, power costs for different types of transport channels are determined based on the obtained parameters, especially the required service rate R and the location factors L. A wireless network may support many types of transport channels. The RNC may calculate a power cost to provide the requested MBMS service to individual UEs for each type of transport channels available in the wireless network.
In step 330, the calculated power costs associated with same UE are compared, and the type of transport channel that has a minimum power cost is selected to provide the requested MBMS service to the UE. For example, for UE 107 as shown in
According to one embodiment, if the wireless network supports three types of transport channels, e.g. DCH, FACH and HS-DSCH, then power costs with regard to all these three types of transport channels, i.e. CDCH, CFACH, CHS will be determined for each UE. Preferably, the power costs are calculated as follows for a particular UE, for example, UE 107. As will be appreciated, same procedure is also applicable to other UEs 101-106.
Preferably, for a HS-DSCH channel, its channel throughput is location-dependent, and in order to determine the power cost, a channel throughput for this HS-DSCH channel with respect to the obtained location factor L of UE 107 is first gotten. Then a proportion of HS-DSCH resource to be occupied by the requested MBMS service is estimated based on the channel throughput and the required service rate R. The power cost CHS is determined based on the power level assigned to the HS-DSCH and the determined proportion.
For example, the power cost CHS may be expressed as:
C
HS
=P
Hs*(R/Th(L)) (1)
In equation (1), PHS is the power level assigned to HS-DSCH channel, the value of which is generally fixed and decided by network planning and thus could be obtained from the wireless network.
Th(L) stands for the channel throughput of the HS-DSCH channel with respect to a given location factor L, here L is the location factor of UE 107. The value of Th( ) will decrease as the distance from the base station increases. As will be appreciated, the function Th( ) could be established by theoretical analysis or based on experiential data during network planning. For example, Th(L) could be embodied as a table showing the relation between L and channel throughput.
Preferably, for a FACH channel, in order to determine the power cost, its power level PFACH to be used is estimated based on the required service rate R and the location factor L of UE 107. Generally speaking, although power level PFACH is time varying and decided by power control algorithm as well as other factors, statistically power level PFACH will increase with the distance and/or the required service rate. For example, in a WCDMA system, transmission power of a FACH channel will be determined based on service requirements on FACH and user measurement reports (including such as CPICH_RSCP etc.). The value of PFACH for given R and L may be obtained in RNC.
Since FACH is a common channel and may serve a number of UEs, the power of a FACH channel will be shared among these UEs. Then, the power cost CFACH is determined based on the estimated PFACH and the number of UEs that are served by the FACH channel.
For example, the power cost CFACH may be expressed as:
C
FACH
=P
FACH(L,R)*(TS/Nslot)NUE (2)
In equation (2), PFACH(L,R) is the estimated power level for the FACH channel. The value of PFACH will increases as the distance from the base station increases or the required service rate increase.
TS refers to the number of time slots per frame to be occupied by the requested MBMS service, and Nslot is the total number of time slots per frame that the FACH channel provides, for example, in a WCDMA system, Nslot is 14 per frame. Here, (TS/Nslot) represents resource occupancy rate of the required MBMS service.
NUE stands for the number of UEs served by the FACH channel at this estimated FACH power level, that is, the number of UEs that could receive the MBMS service on this FACH channel under this power level. Generally speaking, all UEs that are closer to the base station 120 than UE 107, e.g. UEs 101-106 in
Preferably, for a DCH channel, in order to determine the power cost, its power level to be used is estimated based on the required service rate R and the location factor L of UE 107. The way to determine power level of DCH channel PDCH is similar to that for a FACH channel, and the value of PDCH for give L and R may be obtained in RNC. The power cost CDCH is determined based on the estimated PDCH.
For example, the power cost CDCH may be expressed as:
C
DCH
=P
DCH(L,R) (3)
In equation (3), PDCH(L,R) is the estimated power level for DCH channel. Similar to FACH, the value of PDCH will increases as the distance from the base station increases or the required service rate increases.
After calculation of power costs, an optimal transport channel for UE 107 is selected. For UE 107, three power costs that are determined for HS-DSCH, FACH and DCH respectively. The three power costs CHS-DSCH, CFACH, CDCH are compared with each other. The transport channel that has minimum power cost is selected as the optimal transport channel for UE 107 to provide the MBMS service.
Referring back to
As shown in
Additionally or alternatively, the re-allocation of transport channels may be triggered after a time interval, e.g. a fixed interval, in step 450. This is because UEs are always moving, and then the distribution of UEs may change over time. In this case, a re-allocation of transport channels will be triggered so as to adapt to the distribution change of UEs.
The RNC 500 comprises obtaining unit 510, determining unit 520 and selector 530 that are operatively coupled together.
When RNC 500 is to allocate a transport channel for a UE to provide it a requested MBMS service, obtaining unit 510 obtains parameters including rate required by the requested MBMS service and location factor of the UE.
These obtained parameters are notified to determining unit 520, in which power costs with regard to different types of transport channels are respectively determined for the UE based on the obtained parameters, especially the required service rate R and the location factor L.
Preferably, determining unit 520 estimates power levels for FACH channel based on the required service rate and the location factor and calculates the power cost for the FACH channel based on the estimated power level and the number of UEs that are provided with the MBMS session via the FACH channel. Preferably, determining unit 520 gets a throughput of a HS-DSCH channel for the location factor, determine a proportion of HS-DSCH resource occupied by the MBMS service based on a ratio of the required service rate and the throughput, and calculates the power cost for a HS-DSCH channel based on a power level assigned to the HS-DSCH channel and the determined proportion. Preferably, determining unit 520 calculates the power cost for a DCH channel based on an estimated power level for the DCH channel.
Selector 530 receives the determined power costs for different types of transport channels, compares the power costs, and selects the type of transport channel that has a minimum power cost to provide the requested MBMS service to the UE.
Since a RNC according to the present invention would adaptively allocate a transport channel for each MBMS UE based on at lease a required service rate and the UE's location, the solution of the present invention improves the transport channel allocation and thus optimizes power usage of MBMS.
The present invention can be applied for all kinds of wireless communication systems like WCDMA, TD-SCDMA, etc.
As will be appreciated by one of skill in the art, the present invention may be embodied as a method, apparatus, system, or computer program product. Accordingly, the present invention may take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment (including firmware, resident software, micro-code, etc.) or an embodiment combining software and hardware aspects that may all generally be referred to herein as a “circuit,” “module” or “system.” Furthermore, the present invention may take the form of a computer program product on a computer-usable storage medium having computer-usable program code embodied in the medium.
The present invention has been described with reference to flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus (systems) and computer program products according to embodiments of the invention. It will be understood that each block of the flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, and combinations of blocks in the flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, can be implemented by computer program instructions. These computer program instructions may be provided to a processor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructions, which execute via the processor of the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus, create means for implementing the functions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks.
Although specific embodiments have been illustrated and described herein, those of ordinary skill in the art appreciate that any arrangement which is calculated to achieve the same purpose may be substituted for the specific embodiments shown and that the invention has other applications in other environments. This application is intended to cover any adaptations or variations of the present invention. The following claims are in no way intended to limit the scope of the invention to the specific embodiments described herein.
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
---|---|---|---|---|
PCT/CN11/00131 | 1/27/2011 | WO | 00 | 7/25/2013 |