Cell Coordination Group Selection for Interference Management

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Solution Overview

Problem

Existing interference coordination techniques in heterogeneous telecommunication networks struggle to accurately determine cell coordination groups, especially in dense urban environments with 'street canyon' and 'building shadowing' effects, leading to inefficiencies in interference management due to limitations in hardware and software capabilities.

Innovation Solution

A method for identifying and grouping cells based on cell traffic statistics, path loss, signal strength, delay, and transport capacity, where neighbor cells with interconnecting transport delay below a limit and transport capacity above another limit are selected for interference management, forming a cell coordination group that maximizes cooperation among cells.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Reliability

If many small cells are deployed to improve coverage in dense urban areas, then coverage quality is improved, but inter-cell interference increases and interference management complexity increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvecoverage qualityVSAvoidinter-cell interference
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSObject-generated harmful factors

Solution Approach 1:

The patent segments the network into cell coordination groups, where cells are divided into different groups based on their coordination relationships. This segmentation allows interference management to be applied selectively within groups, reducing overall inter-cell interference while maintaining good coverage through the heterogeneous small cell deployment.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #1Segmentation

2Productivity

If existing interference coordination techniques are applied to heterogeneous networks, then interference management is attempted, but accuracy is insufficient due to building shadowing and street canyon effects

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveinterference management effectivenessVSAvoidcell coordination group determination accuracy
Core Design Contradiction:
ProductivityVSMeasurement precision

Solution Approach 1:

The patent performs preliminary actions by pre-defining cell coordination groups based on network configuration and cell characteristics before interference occurs. The network node determines which cells belong to the same coordination group in advance, using this pre-established structure to improve the accuracy of interference management despite building shadowing and street canyon effects that make real-time measurement difficult.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

3Object-generated harmful factors

If cell coordination groups are formed for interference management, then interference is reduced, but hardware and software capability limitations constrain the implementation

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveinter-cell interferenceVSAvoidhardware and software capability requirements
Core Design Contradiction:
Object-generated harmful factorsVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent applies partial action by forming cell coordination groups that include only the necessary subset of cells for effective interference management, rather than coordinating all cells in the network. The network node determines coordination groups selectively, applying interference management techniques only where needed, thus reducing the hardware and software capability requirements while still achieving interference reduction.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #16Partial or excessive action

Data Source

PatentEP3183906B1Defining cell coordination group to which interference management techniques such as comp can be applied
Publication Date: 2019.10.16 TELEFONAKTIEBOLAGET LM ERICSSON (PUBL)
  • EP3183906B1 patent drawingFigure 1
  • EP3183906B1 patent drawingFigure 2
  • EP3183906B1 patent drawingFigure 3

AI summary

The application relates to the selection of cells to form a cell coordination group for which interference management techniques such as COMP are to be applied. The cells to be selected to improve the performance of a UE in terms of throughput or delay are not necessarily the ones which are geographically the closest because in city environments shadowing effects of buildings exist. Thus, choosing the closest cells for coordinated interference management will not be a good solution in many cases. Hence, there is a need to develop another method and mechanism for more accurately generating a cell coordination group for interference management activities. This problem is solved by the application in that either the downlink interference toward the UE from the neighboring cells is estimated or the neighbor cells listen for the UE and then predict the downlink interference. Furthermore, the algorithm starts with an initial list of cells comprising the most likely handover candidates. Furthermore, cells are eliminated if the interconnection link to the serving base station is not fast enough for the interference reducing algorithms.