Load balancing in wireless networks

Abstract

A load balancing system for a wireless network comprises: a base station parameter extraction unit able to extract base station availability parameters of currently available base stations; and a base station quality of service selector associated with said base station parameter extraction unit configured to determine from said parameters which of said available base stations is able to provide a currently required quality of service. The system requests resources from one such base station, thereby to ensure that mobile stations are distributed in a balanced manner between the available base stations. As well as quality of service, interference with other links may be taken into account, and uplinks and downlinks may be considered separately.

1 . A load balancing system for a wireless network in which wireless resources associated with base stations are made available to mobile stations, the system comprising:
 a base station parameter extraction unit able to extract base station availability parameters of currently available base stations; and   a base station quality of service selector associated with said base station parameter extraction unit configured to determine from said parameters which of said available base stations is able to provide a currently required quality of service level, the system further using said extracted parameters to estimate an effect that adding an additional mobile station to a respective base station would have on an availability of said respective base station, and requesting resources from said available base stations so as to minimize said estimated effects on availability.   
     
     
         2 . A load balancing system for a wireless network in which wireless resources associated with base stations are made available to mobile stations, the system comprising:
 a base station parameter extraction unit able to extract base station availability parameters of currently available base stations; and   a base station quality of service selector associated with said base station parameter extraction unit configured to determine from said parameters which of said available base stations is able to provide a currently required quality of service level, the system further using said extracted parameters to estimate an interference effect that adding an additional mobile station to a respective base station would have on an availability of said respective base station, and requesting resources from said available base stations so as to minimize said estimated effects on interference.   
     
     
         3 . The load balancing system of  claim 1 , wherein said base station quality of service selector is located at one member of the group comprising a mobile station, a network entity and a base station. 
     
     
         4 . The load balancing system of  claim 1 , wherein said base station parameter extraction unit is located at one member of the group comprising a mobile station, a base station and a network entity. 
     
     
         5 . The load balancing system of  claim 1 , further comprising a base station interference estimator, associated with said base station parameter extraction unit, configured to estimate, from said parameters, a level of interference, with neighboring base stations and mobile stations, of a link between a given mobile station and a given base station. 
     
     
         6 . The load balancing system of  claim 1 , further configured to determine which of said available and able base stations is able to provide said quality of service with minimal impact on resources, and to request resources from said minimal impact base station. 
     
     
         7 . The load balancing system of  claim 6 , wherein said minimal impact on resources comprises one member of the group comprising the base station able to provide the quality of service for the least resources, the base station having the most resources remaining after servicing the current mobile station, and the base station having the most resources remaining after deducting residual resources and servicing the current mobile station. 
     
     
         8 . The load balancing system of  claim 1 , wherein said base station quality of service selector is configured to extract said base station availability parameters separately for a downlink connection and an uplink connection, the system being configured to determine which of said currently available base stations is able to provide a currently available uplink quality of service and a currently available downlink quality of service and to request resources from one such available base station. 
     
     
         9 . The load balancing system of  claim 8 , further configured to determine which of said available and able base stations is able to provide said uplink quality of service and said downlink quality of service with minimal impact on resources, and to request resources from said minimal impact base station. 
     
     
         10 . The load balancing system of  claim 1 , wherein said resources are measured in terms of consumed slots. 
     
     
         11 . The load balancing system of  claim 1 , wherein said parameters comprise at least one member of the group consisting of: downlink signal to interference noise ratio (SINR), downlink RSSI, uplink SINR, uplink RSSI, base station transmit power and NI. 
     
     
         12 . The load balancing system of  claim 11 , wherein the uplink interference is obtained from the downlink SINR. 
     
     
         13 . The load balancing system of  claim 9 , configured to use said parameters to calculate a path loss for each of said uplink and said downlink respectively, thereby to determine the quality of service available per uplink slot and per downlink slot respectively. 
     
     
         14 . The load balancing system of  claim 13 , configured to select the base station leaving the largest number of slots remaining after providing the mobile station with the requested quality of service. 
     
     
         15 . A load balancing method for a wireless network in which wireless resources associated with base stations are made available to mobile stations with particular quality of service requirements, the method comprising:
 extracting base station availability parameters of currently available base stations;   estimating, from said parameters, effects on availability of respective currently available base stations of providing a currently required quality of service; and   requesting resources from one such available and able base station, the base station selected such that said estimated effect on availability is a minimum, thereby to ensure that mobile stations are distributed in a balanced manner between available base stations.   
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 15 , further comprising requesting said resources from the one of said available and able base stations able to provide said quality of service using a minimum of resources. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 15 , further comprising:
 determining for a plurality of said currently available base stations, interference levels for links thereto; and   requesting said resources from one of said available and able base stations selected to minimize said interference.   
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 15 , further comprising:
 determining for a plurality of said currently available base stations, interference levels for links thereto; and   requesting said resources from one of said available and able base stations selected for providing an optimum between using a minimum of resources and minimizing said interference.   
     
     
         19 . A load balancing method for a wireless network in which wireless resources associated with base stations are made available to mobile stations with particular quality of service requirements, the method comprising:
 extracting base station availability parameters of currently available base stations;   estimating from said parameters an increase in interference levels involved with links between a new mobile station and each of said available base stations, interference being with other mobile stations and with surrounding base stations; and   selecting one of said base stations for requesting of resources in such a way as to minimize said increase in interference levels.