Inbound Handover Enhancement via Neighboring PCI Detection
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Solution Overview
Problem
In densely-deployed wireless communication environments, the limited number of physical cell identities (PCIs) can cause PCI confusion, making it difficult for macro base stations to distinguish between multiple home base stations with the same PCI, leading to challenges in inbound handovers and increased complexity.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of a system that assigns non-identical PCIs or physical scrambling codes (PSCs) to neighboring home base stations, allowing macro base stations to detect and compare signal strengths and arrival angles to determine the correct home base station for handover, using both UE-assisted and network-assisted methods.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Area of stationary object
If multiple home base stations use the same PCI to enhance coverage, then network coverage is improved, but PCI confusion occurs making it difficult to distinguish between base stations
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a new dimension for base station identification by using the set of neighboring base stations and their PCIs as an additional identifier. Instead of relying solely on PCI, the system uses the combination of detected neighboring PCIs to uniquely identify each home base station, effectively adding a spatial dimension to the identification process.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses neighboring base stations as intermediaries to resolve PCI confusion. By detecting and reporting the PCIs of neighboring base stations, the system creates an indirect identification mechanism where the set of neighbors serves as a mediator to distinguish between home base stations with identical PCIs.
2Productivity
If the number of home base stations increases to improve network capacity, then network capacity is improved, but PCI confusion becomes more serious increasing handover complexity
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs preliminary detection of neighboring base stations and their PCIs before handover decisions are made. The UE detects and reports the set of neighboring PCIs in advance, allowing the network to pre-identify and resolve PCI confusion before the actual handover process, thereby simplifying subsequent handover operations.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the identification process into two parts: the original PCI identification and the additional neighboring PCI set identification. By dividing the identification task into these segments, the system can handle large numbers of base stations more efficiently, as the neighboring PCI set acts as a unique signature for each home base station.
3Reliability
If data forwarding is performed to multiple candidate home base stations to prevent handover failure, then handover reliability is improved, but system complexity and overhead increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a feedback mechanism where the UE detects and reports the set of neighboring base station PCIs to the serving base station. This feedback information enables the network to make more informed handover decisions, identifying the most appropriate target base station with higher confidence and reducing the need for redundant data forwarding to multiple candidates.
Data Source
AI summary
A wireless communications device with a wireless module and a controller module is provided. The wireless module performs wireless transmission and reception to and from a service network comprising at least two first home base stations having the same physical cell identity (PCI) or physical scrambling code (PSC), a plurality of second home base stations neighboring the first home base stations, and a macro base station. The controller module receives a message from the macro base station via the wireless module, requests the wireless module to detect a plurality of PCIs or PSCs respectively corresponding to the first home base stations and the second home base stations in response to the message, and transmits to the macro base station via the wireless module the detected PCIs or PSCs, prior to being handed over to the one of the first home base stations from the macro base station.