Distributed Sleeping Cell Detection via Inter-Cell Activity Monitoring
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional wireless communication systems lack the ability to detect 'sleeping cells' effectively, which can lead to degraded coverage and user experience due to hardware, firmware, or software issues, as these cells do not trigger alarms to indicate reduced activity or load, causing the network to interpret them as coverage holes.
Innovation Solution
A distributed communication system that uses interconnected base station routers or eNodeBs to monitor inter-cellular and intra-cellular activity levels, calculating a probability of fault based on X2 activity, and sending alarms to a server to determine if a cell is sleeping, allowing the system to adapt and compensate for such failures.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional hierarchical wireless communication systems are used without distributed sleeping cell detection, then the network architecture is simpler to implement, but sleeping cells cannot be detected effectively leading to degraded coverage and user experience
Solution Approach 1:
An alarm server is introduced as an intermediary component that receives alarms from multiple base stations and performs centralized sleeping cell detection analysis. This mediator handles the complex detection logic and data aggregation, allowing individual base stations to remain relatively simple while achieving reliable sleeping cell detection through the centralized server's coordination of alarm data from the distributed network.
2Ease of manufacture
If distributed architecture with base station routers is deployed, then network deployment cost and complexity are reduced, but the ability to detect sleeping cells is compromised due to lack of centralized coordination
Solution Approach 1:
Base station routers in the distributed architecture implement feedback mechanisms where they monitor and report their own activity levels and detect anomalies in neighboring cells. Each base station continuously monitors communication links with neighbors and provides feedback alarms to the network, enabling distributed detection of sleeping cells while maintaining the simplicity and cost-effectiveness of the distributed architecture.
Solution Approach 2:
The distributed base station routers perform self-diagnosis and self-monitoring of their own operational status and that of neighboring cells. Each base station independently detects potential sleeping cells by analyzing its own activity metrics and communication patterns, eliminating the need for complex centralized control while maintaining effective detection capability through autonomous local intelligence.
3Device complexity
If sleeping cells are not detected, then the system operates with fewer detection mechanisms, but coverage degradation and capacity loss occur due to undetected underperforming cells
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements partial monitoring where base stations monitor a subset of their neighboring cells rather than all possible cells comprehensively. Each base station detects sleeping cells in its immediate vicinity and reports anomalies, providing sufficient detection coverage for the most critical underperforming cells without requiring exhaustive monitoring of the entire network, thus balancing detection effectiveness with operational simplicity.
Data Source
AI summary
The present invention provides a method that includes receiving, at a server, one or more alarms from a first cell in a plurality of cells. The alarm(s) indicate that the first cell has detected a candidate sleeping cell in the plurality of cells based on an activity and/or a load on a communication link between the first cell and the candidate sleeping cell. The method also includes determining, at the server, whether the candidate sleeping cell is a sleeping cell using the alarm.