376 results about "Femto-" patented technology

Methods and apparatus configure a femto radio base station ( 28 f). A macro receiver of the femto radio base station ( 28 f) is used to acquire detected coverage information of a radio access network ( 24 ). The detected coverage information is used to determine an operation parameter for use by the macro transceiver ( 52 ) of the femto radio base station ( 28 f). In one embodiment, the detected coverage information is transmitted to a control node ( 26 ) of the radio access network. The control node ( 26 ) determines the operation parameter and communicates the operation parameter to the femto radio base station ( 28 f). The femto radio base station ( 28 f) is accordingly configured using the operation parameter for further operation towards UEs ( 30 ) accessing the femto radio base station ( 28 f).

In a radio access network (24) a femto radio base station (28f) comprises a resident receiver (54) which acquires system information broadcast in a radio access network (24). At least part of the system information is used for building, at the femto radio base station (28f), a neighbor data structure (59) comprising information for neighboring cells. The neighbor data structure (59) is then used for building a neighbor list. The neighbor list is subsequently transmitted from the femto radio base station (28f) to a user equipment unit (30) served by the femto radio base station (28f). In some example embodiments and modes, the femto radio base station (28f) reports the neighbor data structure to a network node (26, 100) other than the femto radio base station. The other node (26, 100) uses the neighbor data structure for building the neighbor list at the other node. In some example embodiments and modes, acquisition of the system information comprises scanning a surrounding macro coverage area of the femto radio base station for obtaining cell identity information for detected cells. In other example embodiments and modes, the acquisition of the system information can additionally comprise camping on a macro cell and using / consulting at least one system information block in the camped-on macro cell is consulted / used for obtaining information about at least one neighboring cell.

A radio access network (24) comprises a radio network control node (26); a database (40); and a femto radio base station node (28f) serving a femtocell (Cf) of the radio access network. The femto radio base station node (28f) comprises a receiver (54) for receiving scanned cell information broadcast for one or more receivable cells of the radio access network, and a reporting unit (60). The reporting unit (60) provides the scanned cell information for the one or more receivable cells of the radio access network to the radio network control node (26). The radio network control node (60) is arranged, upon receipt of the scanned cell information, for providing configuration information to the femto radio base station node (for configuring the femto radio base station node) and for storing macro cell information for one or more receivable cells in the database (40). The macrocell information is stored in the database (40) in association with the femto radio base station node.

Methods and apparatus provide paging control to a femto radio base station (28fj) of a radio access network (24). Paging to a femto radio base station (28fj) is controlled by maintaining a paging control database (46) of allowed user equipment units for which paging is permitted in a cell of a femto radio base station (28fj). The paging control database (46) is used to determine if a paging message for a target user equipment unit is to be forwarded to the femto radio base station. The database (46) thus serves to redefine the effective paging area by preferably including in the effective paging area only those femto radio base station for which the target user equipment unit is listed as a paging-allowed user equipment unit.

Methods and apparatus enable a femto radio base station (28f), initially connected to a first or default radio network controller node (261), to be redirected / reconnected to a second or correct radio network controller node (262) for use as an active radio network controller node for the femto radio base station (28f). The redirection / reconnection is accomplished by using location-indicative information obtained from a user equipment unit (30) which is in radio communication with the femto radio base station (28f). The technique of redirection is particularly valuable when the femto radio base station (28f) does not have its own receiver for ascertaining the radio access network (RAN) environment.

A method and apparatus for providing a local IP access service to a User Equipment (UE) attached to a femtocell including a Packet Data Network (PDN) gateway function in a wireless communication system. A method includes receiving a service request from a User Equipment (UE), transmitting an initial UE message including information on a local gateway to a Mobility Management Entity (MME), storing bearer information carried in an initial context setup request transmitted by the MME, receiving a Packet Data Network (PDN) connectivity request from the UE, forwarding the PDN connectivity request to the MME, receiving a create session request from the MME, and establishing a radio bearer with the local gateway, the local gateway being co-located with the femtocell.

A radio access network (24) comprises a radio network control node (26); a database (40); and a femto radio base station node (28f) serving a femtocell (Cf) of the radio access network. The femto radio base station node (28f) comprises a receiver (54) for receiving scanned cell information broadcast for one or more receivable cells of the radio access network, and a reporting unit (60). The reporting unit (60) provides the scanned cell information for the one or more receivable cells of the radio access network to the radio network control node (26). The radio network control node (60) is arranged, upon receipt of the scanned cell information, for providing configuration information to the femto radio base station node (for configuring the femto radio base station node) and for storing macro cell information for one or more receivable cells in the database (40). The macrocell information is stored in the database (40) in association with the femto radio base station node.

A system, method and computer product for a mobile station to locate a femto cell, the method comprising: (a) storing in a database information to locate at least one femto cell; (b) receiving, from at least one macro cell, location information of the UE; (c) searching within the database to determine if the UE is in a general proximity of at least one femto cell; (d) if so, accessing the femto cell using the database information corresponding to the femto cell.

An access point generates beacons at different power levels at different times to provide an acceptable tradeoff between coverage area associated with the beacons and outage experienced at nearby access terminals. For example, a femto access point may transmit beacons at a relatively low power for a relatively long period of time to reduce interference at nearby access terminals that are being served by a macro access point. The femto access point may then transmit beacons at a relatively high power for a relatively short period of time to enable nearby access terminals to receive the beacons. Also, a given transmit chain may be used to provide frequency hopping of high and low power beacons.

An apparatus and method for operating a hierarchical cell in a wireless communication system are provided. A femto BS transitions into a sleep mode if there is no accessed MS for a predefined time. The femto BS transmits a FEMTO-ADV message in the sleep mode to notify of the presence of the femto BS. The femto BS releases the sleep mode upon receiving a MOB-FEMTO-AWAKE-REQ message from an MS receiving the FEMTO-ADV message. Thereafter, the femto BS communicates with the MS.

Methods and apparatuses are provided that include calibrating transmit power of a femto node based on measuring one or more parameters related to usage of the femto node. The femto node can temporarily increase transmit power and analyze received measurement reports to determine a transmit power calibration. The femto node can additionally measure uplink received signal strength indicators over multiple time periods following handover of a user equipment (UE) to determine whether to increase transmit power to cover the UE.

Methods and apparatus for performing radio resource management (RRM) measurements in a heterogeneous network (HetNet) are provided in an effort to prevent failure of RRM measurement procedures in a dominant interference scenario. Several alternatives are provided for determining particular resources (e.g., subframes) to use for performing the RRM measurements, wherein the particular resources are based on cooperative resource partitioning between cells of the HetNet, wherein the cells may be of different types (e.g., macro, pico, or femto cells). These alternatives include, for example: (1) intra-frequency or intra-RAT (radio access technology) alternatives, which may involve transmitting resource partitioning information (RPI) in or deriving non-serving cell RPI based on the serving cell's RPI, as well as (2) inter-frequency or inter-RAT alternatives, where the RRM measurements may be performed during a measurement gap.

Systems and methods are disclosed that provide femto-based wireless coverage in a communication network. This can involve providing an interworking function that communications with a femto base station or femto cell to provide connectivity to the core network. The interworking function can provide service and mobility management where a femto cell (such as a home node B (HNB)) is served concurrently by an IMS core and a legacy core. The interworking function can also provide service through a femto cell to a variety of mobile nodes such as legacy devices and IMS capable devices. The interworking function also provides the ability for handoffs to occur between the core networks and between a femto cell and a macro cell.

Provided are a base station device and a transmission power control method that reduce interference with an uplink radio channel from a femto-connected terminal to a macrocell base station while avoiding an increase in signaling. A measurement unit (103) measures the macrocell signal reception level, and a propagation loss estimating unit (104) estimates propagation loss between a HUE and a HNB based on the HUE signal reception power, for example. A judgment unit (105) performs a first comparison of the macrocell signal reception level with a first threshold value and a second comparison of the propagation loss with a second threshold value, and an adjustment unit (106) generates a command to reduce the maximum value that is possible for the target control value for the HNB total reception power when the macrocell signal reception level is at least the first threshold value and the propagation loss is at least the second threshold value. A scheduler (107) determined a transmission rate allocated to the HUE based on the HUE signal and the maximum value that is possible for the target control value for the HNB total reception power.

User equipment (UE), referred to herein as an interfering UE (130), can be detected that is proximate to a low-power cell (120), such as a micro-cell, pico-cell, femto-cell, a relay, or the like. The interfering UE (130) can be transmitting to the base station (110) at a power level that is producing high interference affecting uplink performance between a different UE and the low-power cell (120). A power adjustment message (140) can be generated at the base station (110). The power adjustment message (140) can be conveyed (156) from the base station (110) to the interfering UE (130). The power level adjustment message (130) can cause the interfering UE (130) to lower its transmission power (164), which reduces the high interference, thereby improving uplink performance between the different UE and the low-power cell (120).

In a wireless communication network including several macro cells each having several femto cells, when a trigger event occurs for a measurement report, user equipment creates a measurement report message which includes a cell identifier of a target femto cell for the measurement report in response to the trigger event, measuring results for the target femto cell, and a neighbor cell identifier having a cell identifier of at least one neighbor femto cell around the target femto cell. Then the user equipment transmits the measurement report message to an evolved node B (eNB). When receiving the measurement report message, the eNB distinguishes the target femto cell from others in the femto cells based on the neighbor cell identifier in the received measurement report message.

A method and apparatus for interference control in a wireless communication system with a hierarchical cell layout are provided. The method includes acquiring edge-bands of femto BSs within an area of the macro BS, determining whether an MS receiving a service from the macro BS is located in an area adjacent to the femto BS, and, if the MS is located in the area adjacent to the femto BS, allocating, to the MS, an edge-band of the femto BS to which the MS is adjacent.

A method for a cellular network (100) comprising cells (110) of a first kind controlled by corresponding base stations (111), and cells (120-122) of a second kind controlled by corresponding base stations (125-127). The second kind of cells are smaller than the first kind of cells (110). The network (100) comprises functions (140) for control of the base stations, and functions (150) for handing over the control of user terminals (123, 112) between base stations. The method is used when a call in a cell of the second kind (120-122) is handed over to a base station of the first kind. The method lets said control function (140) of the base station of the cell of the second kind send identifying information to the control function (140) of the base station (111) of the first kind, such that if the call is to be handed back to the original base station (125-127), the original base station can be found by the network.

An operation method of the femto BS includes configuring a subframe set including at least two types of subframes among subframes having predefined different structures, and, if a duration of a subframe carrying the subframe set arrives, transmitting one of the subframes included in the subframe set according to predefined order. The subframes having the predefined different structures include a first type subframe including a synchronization signal and a Master Information Block (MIB), a second type subframe including the synchronization signal, a third type subframe including the synchronization signal and system information, a fourth type subframe including the synchronization signal, the MIB, and the system information, and a fifth type subframe including the system information.

Disclosed systems and methods mitigate interference in heterogeneous networks. Embodiments include adaptive or selective inter-cell interference coordination, adaptive multi-user zero forcing, adaptive power, and / or combinations of the foregoing. Techniques may be used to favor one group of users (e.g., femto users or macro users) over another. Certain embodiments focus quality of service (QoS) improvements on a first group of users, while using constraint processes to provide a threshold QoS for a second group of users.

Embodiments provide an apparatus, method, product and storage medium for controlling or setting a transmit power of a femto cell depending on a received power of at least one neighbouring macro cell.

An apparatus and a method for detecting a femto Base Station (BS) of a Mobile Station (MS) in a wireless communication system including a macro BS and a femto BS are provided. The method includes receiving a request, from the macro BS, to monitor an UpLink (UL) signal of an MS permissible by the femto BS to access, and monitoring the UL signal of the MS permissible to access.

A method and apparatus for estimating an available backhaul bandwidth in a femto-cell communication network includes a step (204, 304) of sending at least one defined data stream to at least one femto-cell. A next step (206, 306) includes measuring a delay of the at least one defined data stream at the at least one femto-cell. A next step (208, 308) includes estimating, from the delay of the at least one defined data stream, a backhaul bandwidth availability.

The invention discloses an adaptive Femto Cell pilot power adjustment method and a device, which is characterized in that a new power control mechanism is adopted, after the pilot power of the femto cell is initialized, the femto cell determines the adjustment value of the pilot power according to the signal-to-noise ratio reported by home user equipment in real time and accordingly controls the pilot power, accessed to each home user equipment, of the femto cell to enable the current pilot power of the femto cell to exactly satisfy the lowest power emission signal required by the signal target of the home user equipment in the coverage area of the pilot power. The invention can realize exact power control, effectively access the home user equipment to the network besides reducing the interference level of the system, thereby increasing the capacity of the system, and farthest reduce the interference of the pilot power of the femto cell in the users in the macrocell and the interference among the femto cells under the condition of ensuring the minimum emission power required by the home users.

The present disclosure provides a method and system for implementing synchronization among micro-base stations, including: a micro-base station intercepts a wireless reference signal of an air interface, and selects a synchronization reference object according to an intercepted wireless reference signal; and the micro-base station implements synchronization processing through detecting the wireless reference signal of the selected synchronization reference object, and adjusts its own synchronization information. The method for implementing synchronization among micro-base stations disclosed in the present disclosure is implemented on the basis of the wireless air interface signals of the micro-base stations, requires no additional synchronization hardware devices (such as Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) receiving apparatus, etc.) and has low cost. By the solution disclosed in the present disclosure, the mutual interference caused by asynchronization between a Time Division Duplex (TDD) micro-base station and other base stations is eliminated flexibly.

One object of the present invention is a method for interfacing a Femto-Cell equipment with a Mobile Core Network, said method comprising following steps of:authenticating and registering said Femto-Cell equipment to a Generic Access Network Controller via a standard Up interface, this step comprising the establishment of a secure tunnel between the said Femto-Cell equipment and a Security Gateway of said Generic Access Network Controller;connecting at least one Mobile Network entity of said Femto-Cell equipment to at least one Mobile Core Network node with at least one standard Mobile Network interface, via a Femto Core Network Gateway entity, said at least one standard Mobile Network interface being encapsulated in a secure tunnel established between said Femto-Cell equipment and said Security Gateway of said Generic Access Network Controller, and being relayed by said Femto Core Network Gateway entity to said Mobile Core Network node.

A method and apparatus for managing femto-cells based on communication network backhaul capability includes a step 202 of determining a communication capability of a backhaul Internet Service Provider connection for the femto-cell. A next step 206 includes creating a messaging element defining the Internet Service Provider backhaul connection communication capability. A next step 208 includes establishing policy rules for the femto-cell based on the messaging element. A next step 210 includes managing communications for the femto-cell per the policy rules

Provided are a method and an apparatus for releasing a blank zone by a macro base station in a wireless communication system. The macro base station: receives channel information from a macro terminal that is serviced therefrom; determines based on the channel information whether or not a downlink blank zone allocated to a resource zone of a femto bas station is released; and transmits downlink blank zone release information to the femto base station if the downlink blank zone is supposed to be released. The downlink blank zone is a resource zone which restricts the downlink transmission, among all the resource zones used by the femto base station. The channel information may be the information about the distance between the femto base station and the macro terminal.

An access point (e.g., a femto cell) that is connected in an active call with an access terminal may cooperate with that access terminal or another access terminal to derive timing information from one or more neighboring access points (e.g., macro access points). In addition, an access point may cooperate with an idle access terminal to derive timing information from one or more neighboring access points. For example, an access terminal may determine the difference between pilot transmission timing or frame transmission timing of a femto cell and a macro cell, and report this timing difference to the femto cell. Based on this timing difference, the femto cell may adjust the timing and / or frequency of its transmissions so that these transmissions are synchronized in time and / or frequency as per network operation requirements.