Measurement Report Prioritization for Operator Nodes
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current measurement reporting mechanisms in communication networks, particularly for Wi-Fi and LTE in unlicensed spectrum, fail to prioritize measurements from operator-owned nodes, leading to inclusion of non-priority network nodes' data, which is not suitable for effective traffic steering and offloading strategies.
Innovation Solution
A method where a terminal device prioritizes measurement reports by distinguishing between priority and non-priority network nodes, based on configured identifiers and quality metrics, to include measurements from operator-owned nodes over others, ensuring that network operators receive critical data from their own nodes.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Quantity of substance
If measurement reports include all detected network nodes regardless of priority, then the quantity of measurement data is increased, but the accuracy and usefulness of traffic steering decisions deteriorates due to inclusion of non-priority nodes
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts and prioritizes measurements from operator-owned priority nodes separately from non-priority nodes. The measurement report structure is modified to include a prioritized list of measurements from priority nodes (operator-owned WLANs/LTE-U nodes) before measurements from non-priority nodes, ensuring that the most relevant measurements for traffic steering decisions are prominently included and not lost among numerous non-priority measurements.
2Measurement precision
If measurement reports prioritize operator-owned nodes, then the accuracy for traffic steering decisions is improved, but the complexity of measurement report formation increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by pre-configuring the terminal device with identifiers of operator-owned priority nodes before measurement reporting begins. The network provides the terminal with a list of priority node identifiers (such as WLAN BSSIDs or LTE-U cell IDs) in advance, so the terminal can efficiently identify and prioritize measurements from these nodes without complex real-time analysis, reducing the computational complexity during actual measurement reporting.
3Ease of operation
If all network nodes are treated equally in measurement reporting, then the ease of operation is maintained, but the effectiveness of traffic steering and offloading strategies deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by differentiating the treatment of measurements based on the priority status of the source nodes. Instead of uniformly processing all measurements, the patent assigns different priorities and positions to measurements from operator-owned nodes versus other nodes. This localized differentiation in measurement handling ensures that traffic steering decisions are based on the most relevant measurements while maintaining a relatively simple overall reporting mechanism.
Data Source
AI summary
According to an aspect, there is provided a method of operating a terminal device in a first communication network, wherein the first communication network is operated by a first network operator, the method comprising receiving (201) one or more signals; determining (203), for each of the one or more received signals, whether the signal was received from a network node that is considered by the first network operator to be a priority node or from a network node that is considered by the first network operator to be a non-priority node; forming (205) a measurement report comprising measurements of one or more of the received signals, the measurement report being formed by prioritizing the inclusion of measurements of signals received from priority nodes over measurements of signals received from non-priority nodes; and sending (207) the measurement report to a network node in the first communication network.