RAN Coordinated Redundant Link Allocation for Reliable Spectrum Use
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing radio access networks face challenges in ensuring network-wide link reliability due to inefficient resource management, leading to unreliable connections and suboptimal spectrum efficiency, particularly in scenarios involving multiple links and shared-cell models.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a network general controller (NGC) that coordinates resource allocation and redundancy management across RAN components, creating redundant data delivery paths through RAN-Sets (RANS) and UE-RBS-RANS associations to enhance link reliability and spectrum efficiency.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If traditional resource management is used in radio access networks, then device complexity is reduced, but link reliability deteriorates due to inefficient resource management and lack of coordination
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a Network General Controller (NGC) as an intermediary component that coordinates resource management across multiple RAN components. The NGC receives resource status information from various RAN components, performs centralized resource management and redundancy control, and sends control commands back to the components. This mediator approach resolves the contradiction by providing the necessary coordination for reliable communication without requiring each individual component to become overly complex.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the RAN into distinct functional components (RUs, DUs, CUs) with specific responsibilities, and introduces the NGC as a separate control layer. This segmentation allows the system to distribute functions appropriately while maintaining centralized coordination for reliability-critical operations, thus improving link reliability without uniformly increasing complexity across all components.
2Reliability
If redundant links are established to improve reliability, then link reliability is improved, but spectrum efficiency deteriorates due to resource overhead
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements dynamic redundancy management where the NGC adjusts the number and configuration of redundant links based on real-time communication conditions. The system determines when redundancy is actually needed and scales it accordingly, rather than maintaining fixed redundant paths. This dynamic approach allows the system to improve reliability when necessary while minimizing spectrum resource overhead during normal operations, thus resolving the contradiction between reliability and spectrum efficiency.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes key parameters such as the number of active redundant links, resource allocation ratios, and switching thresholds based on communication conditions. By dynamically adjusting these parameters, the system can optimize the balance between reliability and spectrum efficiency, establishing redundancy only when the communication environment warrants it.
3Reliability
If coordinated resource management is implemented across RAN components, then link reliability is improved, but device complexity increases due to the NGC and coordination mechanisms
Solution Approach 1:
The NGC is designed as a universal controller that handles multiple functions including resource status monitoring, resource management, redundancy control, and coordination across different RAN component types (RUs, DUs, CUs). By consolidating these diverse functions into a single multi-functional entity, the patent reduces the need for separate complex control mechanisms in each component, thus improving reliability through coordination while limiting the overall complexity increase.
Data Source
AI summary
A network general controller for use with a radio access network (RAN) operates by: determining RAN conditions associated with the RAN, the RAN having a plurality of radio units (RUs), distributed units (DUs) and centralized units (CUs) that facilitate communication with user equipment (UEs) via a plurality of resource block sets (RBS); determining a plurality of UE performance metrics corresponding to the UEs; generating, based on the RAN conditions and based on the performance metrics corresponding to the UEs, selections of a plurality of RAN-Sets (RANS) from the plurality of RUs, DUs and CUs and a UE-RBS-RANS allocation that configures the communication with the UEs via redundant links based on the selections of the RANS and based on a multiplexed sequence of RBS of the plurality of RBS; and facilitating communication with the UEs in accordance with the UE-RBS-RANS allocation.