CoMP Cell Antenna Grouping for Wireless Network Capacity
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Solution Overview
Problem
The formation of CoMP cells in wireless communication networks is challenging due to increased complexity and hardware processing requirements, leading to suboptimal capacity and coverage performance, as existing methods fail to efficiently group user equipments with the most impactful antennas for coordinated data transmissions.
Innovation Solution
A method that involves obtaining signal strength values from multiple antennas, grouping user equipments based on these values, and coordinating data transmissions using subsets of antennas associated with each group, allowing for antenna-specific scheduling and optimizing the number of antennas used, thereby improving capacity and coverage performance.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Area of stationary object
If the number of cells included in a CoMP cell is increased to minimize cell border effects, then coverage performance is improved, but computation complexity and hardware processing requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the large set of antennas into multiple subsets, where each subset is associated with a specific group of user equipments. This segmentation allows the system to manage complexity by processing smaller antenna subsets independently rather than handling all antennas simultaneously, thus enabling larger CoMP cell coverage without proportionally increasing computation complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies local quality by associating different antenna subsets with different user equipment groups based on signal strength relationships. Each antenna subset is optimized for specific spatial directions and user groups, allowing the system to achieve high performance with fewer active antennas per subset while maintaining overall large coverage area.
2Productivity
If antenna-specific scheduling is implemented to identify the most impactful antennas for each user equipment group, then capacity performance is improved, but feedback complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements partial action by having user equipments report signal strength relationships only for a limited number of strongest antennas rather than all antennas. This partial feedback approach captures the essential spatial information needed for antenna-specific scheduling while significantly reducing feedback overhead and complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary processing by pre-associating antenna subsets with user equipment groups based on reported signal strength relationships. This preliminary association enables efficient antenna-specific scheduling without requiring complex real-time decisions, thus improving capacity while keeping feedback requirements manageable.
3Area of stationary object
If all antennas of multiple access nodes are forced to contribute to transmission to a specific user equipment, then coverage is extended, but resource efficiency decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by directing different antenna subsets to different user equipment groups based on spatial signal strength relationships. This ensures that each antenna transmits only to user equipments in its optimal direction, improving resource efficiency by avoiding wasteful transmissions while maintaining extended coverage through coordinated multi-point transmission.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the antenna resources into distinct subsets, each dedicated to specific user equipment groups. This segmentation improves resource efficiency by preventing all antennas from simultaneously serving all user equipments, thereby reducing unnecessary resource usage while maintaining comprehensive coverage through the coordinated action of multiple antenna subsets.
Data Source
AI summary
A network node carries out operations for use in coordinating data transmissions to user equipments in a wireless communication network and, in at least one embodiment, the network node obtains signal strength values indicating antenna relationships between respective user equipments and respective antennas among two or more antennas involving at least two access nodes in the network. The network node arranges the user equipments into groups, based on the antenna relationships, and, based on the antenna relationships, associates each group of user equipments with a sub-set of the two or more antennas. Still further, the network node coordinates data transmissions performed by the at least two access nodes to each group of user equipments, using the associated sub-set of the two one or more antennas.