Methods and radio base stations for determining performance state of a cell

A method in a second radio base station for enabling a first radio base station to determine a performance state of a first cell served by the first radio base station, which first and second radio base stations are comprised in a radio communications network and the second radio base station serves a second cell of the radio communications network;

• the method comprising:
• receiving a data request from the first radio base station, requesting data indicating traffic statistics retrieved in or associated with the second cell, wherein the data request comprises a traffic statistics request requesting an indication of traffic statistics of the second cell,
• collecting traffic statistics;
• and
• transmitting a data response to the first radio base station based on the determined requested data, wherein the data response comprises a traffic statistics response indicating the traffic statistics of the second cell for use in determining the performance state of the first cell.

A first radio base station for determining a performance state of a first cell served by the first radio base station, which first radio base station is arranged to be comprised in a radio communications network, the first radio base station comprising:

• a determining circuit configured to determine traffic statistics of the first cell,
• a comparing circuit configured to compare the traffic statistics with a threshold value,
• a transmitting circuit configured to transmit, when the traffic statistics exceed the threshold value, a data request to a second radio base station serving a second cell, requesting data indicating traffic statistics retrieved in or associated with a second cell,
• a receiving circuit configured to receive a data response indicating the requested data from the second radio base station, and
• an additional determining circuit configured to determine the performance state of the first cell based on the data response,
• wherein the data request comprises a traffic statistics request requesting an indication of traffic statistics of the second cell,
• wherein the data response comprises a traffic statistics response indicating traffic statistics within the second cell, and
• wherein the additional determining circuit is further configured to determine the performance state based on comparing the traffic statistics of the first cell with received traffic statistics of the second cell.

A method in a first radio base station for determining a performance state of a first cell served by the first radio base station, the method comprising:

• determining traffic statistics of the first cell,
• comparing the traffic statistics with a threshold value,
• when the traffic statistics of the first cell exceed the threshold value, transmitting a data request from the first radio base station to a plurality of other radio base stations requesting data indicating traffic statistics retrieved in or associated with the plurality of other radio base stations,
• receiving data responses from at least one of the plurality of other radio base stations indicating traffic statistics from the at least one of the plurality of other radio base stations, and
• determining the performance state of the first cell based on the data responses,
• wherein the first cell is determined to be in a degraded performance state when the traffic statistics from the at least one of the plurality of radio base stations differs outside a defined difference interval for a majority of a number of cells controlled by the at least one of the plurality of radio base stations,
• wherein the data request comprises a traffic statistics request requesting an indication of traffic statistics of the second cell,
• wherein the data response comprises a traffic statistics response indicating traffic statistics within the second cell, and
• wherein the determining the performance state comprises comparing the traffic statistics of the first cell with received traffic statistics of the second cell, and determining the performance state based on an outcome of the comparing.