Telecommunications – Radiotelephone system – Zoned or cellular telephone system
Reexamination Certificate
1999-07-30
2001-10-23
Chang, Vivian (Department: 2682)
Telecommunications
Radiotelephone system
Zoned or cellular telephone system
C455S067150, C455S453000, C455S425000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06308071
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to monitoring traffic in a mobile communication network and particularly to a method of monitoring mobile telephone traffic to identify geographically regions of high traffic concentration. Such regions are referred to herein as “hot spots”.
BACKGROUND ART
It would be advantageous in a mobile communication network to be able to analyse the traffic distribution within a given area with a view to detecting areas of high traffic concentration or “hot spots”. In this manner, network operators can retrieve information from the network concerning the places where more capacity is needed.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
According to one aspect of the present invention there is provided a method of monitoring traffic in a mobile communication network to identify geographically regions of high traffic concentration, comprising:
a) receiving from each of a plurality of mobile stations data representing the received signal levels at that mobile station from a plurality of neighbouring cells;
b) identifying for each such mobile station, when possible, a group of the neighbouring cells having the highest received signal levels;
c) storing the identity of the cells in each group for each such mobile station; and
d) identifying the most often occurring groups thereby to identify geographically the regions of high traffic concentration.
In the preferred embodiment, each group is associated with a geographical location and the geographical locations are displayed thereby to visually represent the regions of high traffic concentration. This provides a useful tool for future planning of base station installations, for example in particular the provision of microcells or an increased number of base stations.
In the described embodiment, step a) is carried out for each mobile station within an allocated serving cell, and a set of neighbouring cells having the highest received signal levels at that serving cell are identified. The group consists of the serving cell and the identified set.
Each set can contain three cells and thus constitute a triplet. In the preferred embodiment, triplets are stored at the base station controller for the serving cell. It would be possible to store sets of only two cells, so that each group would have three cells. Moreover, it would be possible to detect sets of four or more cells. The disadvantage of this is that the possible number of combinations of cells within a set increases rapidly and therefore the storage capacity of the system would have to increase. Thus, the storage of triplets is considered to be the preferred embodiment, but environmental and other considerations could affect the number of cells in a set and therefore the number of cells in a group.
The data representing the received signal levels can be collected during a predetermined time period. This time period could be set for example by an operating control centre (OMC—operation and maintenance centre according to GSM standard), or by the base station controller itself.
As is known according to the GSM standard, data defining the received signal level of the serving and neighbouring transmission cells is transmitted from each mobile station via its traffic channel.
For each mobile station, it is also possible to store timing advance information reported by the mobile stations for the serving cell. This timing advance information can be used to amend the geographical location of high traffic concentration since it is directly related to the distance between the mobile station and the serving base station.
According to another aspect of the present invention there is provided a system for identifying geographically regions of high traffic concentration in a mobile communication network, the system comprising:
means for receiving from each of a plurality of mobile stations data representing the received signal levels from a plurality of neighbouring cells;
means for identifying for each mobile station, where possible, a group of the neighbouring cells having the highest received signal levels; and
a store for storing the identity of the cells in each group, with an indication of the number of times that group has been identified whereby the most often occurring groups can be identified.
The system can be located at a base station controller controlling at least one of the cells.
The base station controller can comprise a plurality of base station control units for controlling a plurality of transceivers and a performance control block connected to said base station control units to transmit an instruction requesting the collection of data identifying said groups, each base station control unit comprising means for determining whether or not that instruction refers to a transceiver controlled by that base station control unit, and for discarding the instruction if not.
In accordance with another aspect of the invention there is provided a mobile communication network which operates to identify regions of high traffic concentration, the network comprising:
a plurality of base stations for defining cells in the network;
at least one base station controller for controlling said base stations, and including a system comprising means for receiving from each of a plurality of mobile stations data representing the received signal levels from a plurality of neighbouring cells in the network, means for identifying for each mobile station, when possible, a group of the neighbouring cells having the highest received signal levels, and a store for storing the identity of the cells in each group, with an indication of the number of times that group has been identified whereby the most often occurring groups can be identified; and
an operating control centre which defines a predetermined time period over which data defining said groups is collected, and which communicates with said at least one base station controller to instruct the collection of said data for said predetermined time period.
This data is referred to herein as “hot spot” data.
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PCT International Search Report.
Appiah Charles N.
Chang Vivian
Nokia Telecommunications Oy
Perman & Green LLP
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