Coordinated Resource Allocation Among Base Stations
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current resource management and scheduling algorithms in wireless communications are limited to individual base stations and do not effectively coordinate radio resources among multiple base stations, leading to performance degradation due to interference and suboptimal user throughput in multi-cell environments.
Innovation Solution
The development of methods and algorithms to manage and schedule wireless resources across a group of base stations, such as Femtocells and Picocells, by forming neighbor lists based on interference measurements and optimizing radio resource allocation using utility functions that consider data rates across multiple cells, allowing for coordinated resource allocation to improve overall system performance.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If resource allocation is optimized for individual base stations using traditional scheduler algorithms, then each base station can achieve its local performance targets, but overall system performance deteriorates due to interference and lack of coordination among multiple base stations
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines the resource allocation decisions of multiple base stations into a coordinated system. The network controller aggregates channel state information from multiple base stations and users, then performs joint resource allocation that considers interference between cells. This merging of previously independent allocation decisions resolves the contradiction by achieving both high user throughput and interference management through centralized coordination.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements feedback mechanisms where base stations report channel state information and interference levels to the network controller, which then adjusts resource allocation decisions accordingly. This closed-loop feedback enables the system to dynamically respond to changing interference conditions while maintaining high throughput, resolving the contradiction between individual base station performance and overall system coordination.
2Ease of operation
If traditional scheduler algorithms are used that operate independently at each base station, then implementation is simple and decentralized, but resource allocation efficiency deteriorates due to lack of inter-cell coordination
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a network controller as an intermediary between base stations. This intermediary collects channel state information from multiple base stations, performs centralized resource allocation optimization considering inter-cell interference, and distributes allocation decisions back to the base stations. This intermediary structure enables efficient coordinated resource allocation while maintaining relatively simple operation at individual base stations, resolving the contradiction between decentralized simplicity and system-wide efficiency.
3Reliability
If utility-based cost functions are optimized for single base station users, then individual user service requirements are satisfied, but overall network resource utilization deteriorates due to ignoring users in neighboring cells
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extends the optimization from a single base station dimension to a multi-cell dimension. The network controller performs resource allocation that simultaneously considers users across multiple neighboring cells, adding the spatial dimension of inter-cell coordination to the traditional single-cell utility optimization. This dimensional extension enables the system to satisfy individual user service requirements while also optimizing overall network resource utilization by considering the broader multi-cell context.
Data Source
AI summary
Various techniques are disclosed for wireless communications for providing a methodology and algorithm(s) to manage resources and schedule users in a coordinated way among a group of base stations, such as Femtocells, Picocells, self-organized Basestations, Access Points (APs) or mesh network nodes, or among the basestations in a two tiered networks, to improve the performance for individual user, individual Basestation (BTS), the overall systems or all of above.