Wireless Backhaul Traffic Distribution for Relay Base Stations
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Solution Overview
Problem
In wireless networks, particularly with relay base stations, heavy load on carriers can cause delays in control-plane communications, leading to issues like dropped calls due to limited air interface resources, especially when using wireless backhaul connections.
Innovation Solution
Differentially distributing traffic between two carriers based on whether the communication is control-plane or user-plane, with control-plane communications being routed on a less loaded carrier and user-plane communications on a possibly more loaded carrier, to manage wireless backhaul communication effectively.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Device complexity
If all traffic is transmitted on a single carrier, then device complexity is reduced, but control-plane communications experience delays due to heavy load
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments traffic into control-plane traffic and user-plane traffic, routing control-plane traffic through a first carrier and user-plane traffic through a second carrier. This segmentation allows control-plane communications to avoid delays caused by heavy user-plane load on the same carrier, resolving the contradiction between simplicity and communication delay.
2Device complexity
If control-plane and user-plane traffic are transmitted on the same carrier, then device complexity is reduced, but reliability of control-plane communications deteriorates under heavy load
Solution Approach 1:
The patent separates control-plane and user-plane traffic onto different carriers, ensuring that control-plane communications maintain high reliability even when user-plane traffic creates heavy load. This segmentation prevents control-plane packets from being delayed or dropped due to carrier congestion.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies different quality requirements to different traffic types by routing control-plane traffic (which requires high reliability) through a dedicated first carrier, while allowing user-plane traffic (which can tolerate more variability) to use a second carrier. This local quality differentiation maintains control-plane reliability under heavy load.
3Reliability
If multiple carriers are used for traffic distribution, then control-plane communication reliability is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts control-plane traffic from the general traffic pool and routes it through a dedicated first carrier, while user-plane traffic is handled through a second carrier. This extraction approach improves control-plane reliability by isolating it from user-plane load, while the complexity is managed by establishing clear routing rules for each traffic type.
Data Source
AI summary
When a donor base station serves a relay on a wireless backhaul connection that encompasses at least two carriers, and where the relay includes a relay base station and a relay-WCD, communications over the wireless backhaul connection will be distributed among the carriers based on whether the communications are control-plane communications with the relay base station or rather user-plane communications with a WCD served by the relay base station. For instance, all such control-plane communication could be carried on one of the carriers, and all such user-plane communication could be carried instead on another of the carriers.