EP0701382A1
Expired / Lapsed
EP
⏱️ 0.0 years remaining
Operations of cellular communications systems based on mobility and teletraffic statistics collected by mobile units
Assignee: AT&T Inc
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Filing: 1995-08-30
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Granted: —
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Expires: 2015-08-30
Abstract
Abstract Each mobile unit (108,110) in a cellular communications system (100) accumulates at least one mobility or communications traffic (teletraffic) statistic representative of "typical" operation of the mobile unit within the cellular communications system. The mobile units process or collect the statistics and then transmit the aggregate statistics to a microcell (102) or macrocell (104) base station (106 or 112) at time of origination of a call to or from the mobile, request for a handoff of a call by the mobile unit or the registration process. Included within the characteristics which can be monitored in accordance with the present invention are the following: cell sojourn time; area sojourn time; call holding times; call throughput; number of previous handoffs in an ongoing call; time periods between two consecutive failed handoffs for the mobile unit; and, the ratio of calls originating from a mobile unit to the number of calls terminating to a mobile unit. The accumulated data representative of these characteristics are utilized by the receiving base station (106 or 112) to assign new and handoff calls to a microcell (102) or a macrocell (104), to prioritize call handling within the cellular communications system and to assign customzied customer service areas.
Inventors
- 👤 Kin Kwong Leung
- 👤 Kwan Lawrence Yeung
- 👤 Sanjiv Nanda
Bibliographic Details
Application Number
—
Jurisdiction
EP
Data Source
google_patents
Last Synchronized
2026-11-01 18:16
CPC Classifications
H; H04; H04W; H04W24/00; H04W16/00; H04W16/24; H04W16/32; H04W36/00; H04W36/04
Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 13
Claim 1
Independent Claim
128 words
A method of operating a cellular communications system wherein distributed base stations couple a plurality of mobile units to a fixed switching network, said cellular communications system comprising a layered cellular mobile network having macrocells each of which overlies a plurality of microcells, said method comprising the steps of: controlling the connections of said plurality of mobile units from said distributed base stations based on measurable statistics of each of said plurality of mobile units; measuring microcell sojourn times at each of said plurality of mobile units as one of said measurable statistics; aggregating measured microcell sojourn times representative of mobile unit mobility at each of said plurality of mobile units; and transmitting aggregated microcell sojourn times from said plurality of mobile units to said distributed base stations.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim
81 words
A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein said step of aggregating microcell sojourn times comprises the step of determining a mobility index a i by recursively computing a i = αa i-1 + (1 - α)t i where a i is the mobility index, a i-1 is the preceding mobility index, α is a weighting factor ranging between 0 and 1, and t i is the time the mobile unit spent in a microcell between microcell crossings i-1 and i.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
54 words
A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein said method further comprises the steps of: comparing aggregated microcell sojourn times to a threshold; routing calls through appropriate microcells if aggregated microcell sojourn times are greater than said threshold; and routing calls through appropriate macrocells if aggregated microcell sojourn times are less than said threshold.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
118 words
A method as claimed in claim 1 further comprising the steps of: performing said steps of measuring microcell sojourn times, and aggregating microcell sojourn times at each of said plurality of mobile units whenever a mobile unit is powered-up; performing said step of transmitting aggregated microcell sojourn times of said mobile units from said plurality of mobile units to said distributed base stations at times of call set-up; comparing aggregated microcell sojourn times to an origination threshold between a low threshold and a high threshold; routing calls through appropriate microcells if aggregated microcell sojourn times are greater than said origination threshold; and routing calls through appropriate macrocells if aggregated microcell sojourn times are less than said origination threshold.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
89 words
A method as claimed in claim 4 further comprising the steps of: continuing to perform said steps of measuring microcell sojourn times, and aggregating microcell sojourn times at each of said plurality of mobile units during the progress of established calls connected over said cellular communications system; performing said step of transmitting aggregated microcell sojourn times of said mobile units from said plurality of mobile units to said distributed base stations at times of microcell boundary crossings; and handing off established calls based on said aggregated microcell sojourn times.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
53 words
A method as claimed in claim 2 further comprising the steps of: accumulating call holding times at each of said plurality of mobile units as one of said measurable statistics; aggregating call holding times at each of said plurality of mobile units; and transmitting aggregated call holding times to said distributed base stations.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim
88 words
A method as claimed in claim 6 wherein the step of aggregating call holding times at each of said plurality of mobile units comprises the step of determining a weighted average by recursively computing b i = βb i-1 + (1 - β)h i where b i is a weighted average of call holding time, b i-1 is the preceding weighted average of call holding time, β is a weighting factor ranging between 0 and 1, and h i is the holding time of the i th call.
Claim 8
Independent Claim
145 words
A method of operating a cellular communications system wherein distributed base stations couple a plurality of mobile units to a fixed switching network, said cellular communications system comprising a layered cellular mobile network having macrocells each of which overlies a plurality of microcells, said method comprising the steps of: controlling the connections of established calls on said plurality of mobile units from said distributed base stations based on measurable statistics of each of said plurality of mobile units; accumulating the number of previous handoffs for each call at each of said plurality of mobile units as one of said measurable statistics; transmitting the number of previous handoffs with each request for a handoff; comparing the number of previous handoffs for each call to a defined threshold; and allocating a macrocell channel to calls in which the number of previous handoffs exceeds a defined handoff threshold.
Claim 9
Independent Claim
107 words
A method of operating a cellular communications system wherein distributed base stations couple a plurality of mobile units to a fixed switching network, said method comprising the steps of: controlling system resource allocation for each of said plurality of mobile units from said distributed base stations based on measurable communications statistics representative of each of said plurality of mobile units; collecting measurable communications statistics representative of each of said plurality of mobile units at each of said plurality of mobile units; and transmitting said measurable communications statistics representative of each of said plurality of mobile units from said plurality of mobile units to said distributed base stations.
Claim 10
Dependent Claim
23 words
A method as claimed in claim 9 further comprising the step of setting a customer service area based on said measurable communications statistics.
Claim 11
Independent Claim
141 words
A method of operating a cellular communications system wherein distributed base stations couple a plurality of mobile units to a fixed switching network, said method comprising the steps of: controlling connections of said plurality of mobile units from said distributed base stations based on measurable statistics of each of said plurality of mobile units; accumulating microcell sojourn times at each of said plurality of mobile units as one of said measurable statistics; taking a weighted average of microcell sojourn times representative of mobile unit mobility at each of said plurality of mobile units; transmitting weighted averages of microcell sojourn times representative of the mobilities of said mobile units from said plurality of mobile units to said distributed base stations; and prioritizing the order of performing connections of said plurality of mobile units based on said weighted averages of microcell sojourn times.
Claim 12
Independent Claim
220 words
A method of operating a cellular communications system wherein distributed base stations couple a plurality of mobile units to a fixed switching network, said method comprising the steps of: controlling connections of said plurality of mobile units from said distributed base stations based on measurable statistics of each of said plurality of mobile units; accumulating time intervals between two consecutive calls at each of said plurality of mobile units as one of said measurable statistics; taking a weighted average of accumulated time intervals between two consecutive calls at each of said plurality of mobile units; accumulating time intervals between two consecutive calls which fail at handoff at each of said plurality of mobile units; taking a weighted average of the time intervals between two consecutive calls which fail at handoff at each of said plurality of mobile units; transmitting the ratio of weighted averages of accumulated time intervals between two consecutive calls to weighted averages of time intervals between two consecutive calls which fail at handoff from said plurality of mobile units to said distributed base stations; and prioritizing the order of performing connections of said plurality of mobile units based on the ratio of said weighted averages of accumulated time intervals between two consecutive calls to weighted averages of time intervals between two consecutive calls which fail at handoff.
Claim 13
Independent Claim
128 words
A method of operating a cellular communications system wherein distributed base stations couple a plurality of mobile units to a fixed switching network, said method comprising the steps of: controlling connections of said plurality of mobile units from said distributed base stations based on measurable statistics of each of said plurality of mobile units; accumulating mobility data at each of said plurality of mobile units as one of said measurable statistics; taking a weighted average of accumulated mobility data at each of said plurality of mobile units; transmitting the weighted averages of accumulated mobility data from said plurality of mobile units to said distributed base stations; and prioritizing the order of performing connections of said plurality of mobile units based on the weighted averages of accumulated mobility data.
References Cited (Backward Citations)
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