US 11,115,860 B1Granted

Secondary access node control in a wireless communication network

AssigneeSprint Communications Company L.P.

InventorSreekar Marupaduga

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Abstract

In a wireless communication network, a primary access node controls the amount of secondary access nodes that serve User Equipment (UE). The primary access node exchanges data with the UE, corrects errors, and determines an error rate. The primary access node exchanges the data over backhaul links and determines backhaul throughput. The primary access node determines a target number of the secondary access nodes based on the error rate and the backhaul throughput. The primary access node identifies a qualifying set of the secondary access nodes that have adequate received signal strength. The primary access node selects a serving set having the target number of secondary access nodes from the qualifying set. The primary access node indicates the UE to the serving set and indicates the serving set to the UE. The serving set of the secondary access nodes exchange data with the UE.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A method of operating a wireless communication network to control an amount of secondary access nodes that serve a wireless User Equipment (UE), the method comprising:

a primary access node exchanging data with the wireless UE over one or more wireless links, performing error correction for the data, and determining an error rate for the error correction;
the primary access node exchanging the data with at least one network element over one or more backhaul links and determining backhaul throughput for the one or more backhaul links;
the primary access node determining a target number of the secondary access nodes based on the error rate and the backhaul throughput;
the primary access node identifying a qualifying set of the secondary access nodes that have adequate received signal strength at the wireless UE;
the primary access node selecting a serving set of the secondary access nodes from the qualifying set, wherein the serving set has the target number of the secondary access nodes;
the primary access node indicating the wireless UE to the serving set of the secondary access nodes and indicating the serving set of the secondary access nodes to the wireless UE;
and
the serving set of the secondary access nodes exchanging additional data with the wireless UE over additional wireless links.

5 more elements

A wireless communication network to control an amount of secondary access nodes that serve a wireless User Equipment (UE), the wireless communication network comprising:

a primary access node configured to exchange data with the wireless UE over one or more wireless links, perform error correction for the data, and determine an error rate for the error correction;
the primary access node configured to exchange the data with at least one network element over one or more backhaul links and determine backhaul throughput for the one or more backhaul links;
the primary access node configured to determine a target number of the secondary access nodes based on the error rate and the backhaul throughput;
the primary access node configured to identify a qualifying set of the secondary access nodes that have adequate received signal strength at the wireless UE;
the primary access node configured to select a serving set of the secondary access nodes from the qualifying set, wherein the serving set has the target number of the secondary access nodes;
the primary access node configured to indicate the wireless UE to the serving set of the secondary access nodes and indicate the serving set of the secondary access nodes to the wireless UE;
and
the serving set of the secondary access nodes configured to exchange additional data with the wireless UE over additional wireless links.

5 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.