Cellular network load balancing
AssigneeVodafone IP Licensing Limited
InventorsAssen Mahaboob Khan Golaup, Alexej Kulakov, Timothy James Frost
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method and system are disclosed for operation of a cellular network comprising a first base station, a second base station and a mobile station being served by the first base station. Load information is received from the second base station at the mobile station, the load information indicating a load placed on the resources of the second base station and a load indication based on the received load information is communicated from the mobile station to the first base station. The first base station may be a macrocell base station and the second base station may be a non-planned or femtocell base station.
Claims20
A method of operating a cellular network including a first base station, a second base station and a mobile station being served by the first base station, the method comprising:
- receiving load information from the second base station at the mobile station, the load information indicating a load placed on the resources of the second base station;
- and
- communicating a load indication based on the received load information from the mobile station to the first base station.
A femtocell base station of a cellular network, comprising:
- a downlink transmitter;
- and
- a controller, configured to control the downlink transmitter to transmit load information, the load information indicating a load placed on the resources of the femtocell base station.
A mobile station of a cellular network, comprising:
- a downlink receiver;
- an uplink transmitter;
- and
- a controller configured to control the downlink receiver and uplink transmitter to allow the mobile station to be served by a first base station, and further configured to control the downlink receiver to receive load information from a second base station, the load information indicating a load placed on the resources of the second base station and further configured to control the uplink transmitter to transmit a load indication based on the received load information to the first base station.
A non-transitory computer readable medium storing software for operating a cellular network including a first base station, a second base station and a mobile station being served by the first base station, the software comprising:
- executable code that receives load information from the second base station at the mobile station, the load information indicating a load placed on the resources of the second base station;
- and
- executable code that communicates a load indication based on the received load information from the mobile station to the first base station.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.