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US 8,805,384 B2Granted
Inter-rat coverage determination for energy saving management
AssigneeIntel Corporation
InventorJoey Chou
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Embodiments of systems and techniques are described for determining inter-radio access technology (inter-RAT) coverage for energy saving management (ESM). In some embodiments, a network management (NM) apparatus may determine that a source cell of a network of a first RAT is triggered to activate an energy saving state and that the source cell is partially overlapped by each of a plurality of cells of one or more networks of one or more RATs different from the first RAT. The NM apparatus may instruct the source cell to activate the energy saving state when a combination of the plurality of cells provides coverage of the source cell. Other embodiments may be described and claimed.
Claims28
One or more non-transitory computer-readable media having instructions that, when executed, cause an integration reference point (IRP) manager module of a management apparatus to:
- identify a source cell that supports inter-radio access technology (RAT) energy saving, the source cell of a network of a first RAT that is a universal mobile telecommunications system terrestrial radio access network (UTRAN) or an evolved universal terrestrial radio access network (E-UTRAN), wherein the source cell has a coverage area and a user equipment (UE) outside the coverage area cannot be covered by the source cell;
- identify a target cell that is proximate to the source cell, the target cell of a network of a second RAT that is different from the first RAT;
- store a first value for an energy-saving-coverage attribute corresponding to the target cell if the target cell is recommended to be considered as a single candidate cell to take over coverage when the source cell is about to be transferred to an energy saving state, wherein the target cell is recommended to be considered as a single candidate cell when a coverage area of the target cell encompasses the coverage area of the source cell;
- and
- store a second value, different from the first value, for the energy-saving-coverage attribute corresponding to the target cell if the target cell is recommended along with at least one other target cell to be considered as an entirety of candidate cells to take over coverage when the source cell is about to be transferred to the energy saving state, wherein the target cell is recommended along with at least one other target cell to be considered as an entirety of candidate cells when a combination of coverage areas of the target cell and the at least one other target cell encompasses the coverage area of the source cell, and wherein the target cell and the at least one other target cell have different coverage areas.
2 more elements
A network management (NM) apparatus, comprising:
- a trigger module to determine that a source cell of a network of a first radio access technology (RAT) is triggered to activate an energy saving state, wherein the source cell has a coverage area and a user equipment (UE) outside the coverage area cannot be covered by the source cell;
- an overlap module to determine that the coverage area of the source cell is either encompassed by a coverage area of a single target cell of a network of a RAT different from the first RAT or encompassed by a combination of different coverage areas of a plurality of cells of one or more networks of one or more RATs different from the first RAT;
- and
- an instruction module to instruct the source cell to activate the energy saving state is either encompassed by a coverage area of a single target cell of a network of a RAT different from the first RAT or encompassed by a combination of different coverage areas of a plurality of cells of one or more networks of one or more RATs different from the first RAT.
1 more element
An evolved nodeB (eNB) serving a source cell of a network of a first radio access technology (RAT), the eNB comprising:
- a trigger module to determine when operating conditions within the source cell have reached a trigger point at which the eNB is to activate an energy saving state, wherein the source cell has a coverage area and a user equipment (UE) outside the coverage area cannot be covered by the source cell;
- an overlap module to determine that the coverage area of the source cell is either encompassed by a coverage area of a single target cell of a network of a RAT different from the first RAT or encompassed by a combination of different coverage areas of a plurality of cells of one or more networks of one or more RATs different from the first RAT;
- and
- a notification module to notify a network management (NM) apparatus when the eNB has activated the energy saving state, wherein the eNB activates the energy saving state based on the trigger point being reached and the coverage area of the source cell being either encompassed by a coverage area of a single target cell of a network of a RAT different from the first RAT or encompassed by a combination of different coverage areas of a plurality of cells of one or more networks of one or more RATs different from the first RAT.
1 more element
One or more non-transitory computer-readable media having instructions that, when executed, cause an integration reference point (IRP) manager module of a management apparatus to:
- identify a source cell that supports inter-radio access technology (RAT) energy saving, the source cell of a network of a first RAT that is a universal mobile telecommunications system terrestrial radio access network (UTRAN) or an evolved universal terrestrial radio access network (E-UTRAN);
- identify a target cell that is proximate to the source cell, the target cell of a network of a second RAT that is different from the first RAT;
- store a first value for an energy-saving-coverage attribute corresponding to the target cell if the target cell is recommended to be considered as a candidate cell to take over coverage when the source cell is about to be transferred to an energy saving state;
- store a second value, different from the first value, for the energy-saving-coverage attribute corresponding to the target cell if the target cell is recommended along with at least one other target cell to be considered as an entirety of candidate cells to take over coverage when the source cell is about to be transferred to the energy saving state;
- and
- store a third value, different from the first and second values, for the energy-saving-coverage attribute corresponding to the target cell if the target cell is not recommended to be considered as a candidate cell to take over coverage when the source cell is about to be transferred to an energy saving state nor recommended along with at least one other target cell to be considered as an entirety of candidate cells to take over coverage when the source cell is about to be transferred to the energy saving state.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.