Beam-Level Load Balancing in Beamformed Radio Access
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Legacy load balancing mechanisms in communication systems with beamformed radio access are inefficient as they autonomously shift cell boundaries, impacting all users and failing to consider the target cell's resource availability and service continuity, leading to suboptimal load balancing outcomes.
Innovation Solution
A method where a radio access entity determines a load balancing condition by identifying candidate beams and target cells, specifies a hypothesis for beam deactivation, and negotiates with the target cell to assess and accept or reject the deactivation, ensuring that beam deactivation does not create coverage holes or overload the target cell.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If legacy load balancing mechanisms autonomously shift cell boundaries, then load balancing is achieved, but all users are impacted and service continuity is compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the cell boundary adjustment at the beam level rather than cell level. By identifying specific candidate beams for deactivation and negotiating their individual deactivation, the system achieves load balancing without abruptly shifting the entire cell boundary, thus maintaining service continuity for users in other beams.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies local quality by treating different beams differently based on their load conditions. Instead of uniformly affecting all users, the system selectively deactivates only the candidate beams that are causing overload, while maintaining active beams for users with acceptable service conditions.
2Productivity
If cell boundary is shifted by power adjustment, then load balancing is achieved, but SNR/SINR of users in overloaded cell decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the load balancing function from the cell-level power adjustment mechanism. Instead of reducing Tx power for the entire cell, the system identifies and deactivates specific candidate beams, effectively removing the overload issue from those beams while preserving signal quality for users in other beams.
3Productivity
If handover setting adjustment is used for load balancing, then users are offloaded to neighboring cells, but interference for handed-over users increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by negotiating beam deactivation with target cells before actually deactivating the beams. This allows the system to prepare the target cell by ensuring it has sufficient resources and appropriate handover configurations in place, thereby reducing interference for handed-over users when the beam deactivation occurs.
4Loss of time
If beam deactivation is implemented without negotiation, then load balancing is achieved quickly, but target cell resource availability is not considered
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a feedback mechanism through negotiation between source and target cells. The source cell queries the target cell about its resource availability and service continuity capabilities before deactivating candidate beams. This feedback loop ensures that the target cell can actually accommodate the offloaded users without compromising its own service levels.
Data Source
AI summary
There are provided measures for enabling/realizing load balancing between neighboring cells in a system with beamformed radio access. Such measures exemplarily include determining a load balancing condition, including at least one beam as a candidate beam and at least one target radio access entity for offloading terminal entities being currently served by the candidate beam, specifying a load balancing hypothesis for a hypothetical case of deactivation of the candidate beam, including information on an impact of the hypothetical beam deactivation, inquiring non-/acceptance of deactivation of the candidate beam from the at least one target radio access entity on the basis of the load balancing hypothesis, and deactivating the candidate beam if acceptance of deactivation of the candidate beam is inquired from the at least one target radio access entity.