Device and method for controlling working state change of small cell

Abstract

A device and method controlling working state change of a small cell and a base station including the device. The device includes: an information acquiring unit that acquires interference between a small cell to be controlled and an adjacent small cell and/or load of the small cell to be controlled; and a state change determination unit that determines working state change to be performed by the small cell to be controlled according to the acquired interference and/or load. The working state includes multiple sleep levels from low to high. A sleep degree of the small cell to be controlled in a low sleep level is less than a sleep degree of the small cell to be controlled in a high sleep level, the working state change being performed among multiple sleep levels.

1 . An electronic device for controlling a cell providing first coverage and a cell providing second coverage, comprising circuitry configured to:
 acquire load information of the cell providing first coverage;   acquire information indicating interference between the cell providing first coverage and the cell providing second coverage;   monitor an operation state of the cell providing second coverage; and   when the cell providing first coverage is overloaded and the cell providing second coverage is in an off state, through an inter-cell interface, request the cell providing second coverage to decrease the level of inactivity of the cell providing second coverage, wherein decreasing the level of inactivity includes changing a cell operation state from an off state to an on state.   
     
     
         2 . The electronic device according to  claim 1 , wherein the circuitry is further configured to request the cell providing second coverage, through the inter-cell interface and based on the information indicating the interference, to increase the level of inactivity of the cell providing second coverage. 
     
     
         3 . The electronic device according to  claim 2 , wherein the circuitry is further configured to perform the requesting when the information indicating that the interference between the cell providing first coverage and the cell providing second coverage exceeds a predetermined level. 
     
     
         4 . The electronic device according to  claim 1 , wherein when a resource use ratio of a physical downlink data channel of the cell providing first coverage exceeds a threshold, the cell providing first coverage is overloaded. 
     
     
         5 . The electronic device according to  claim 1 , wherein the cell providing first coverage and the cell providing second coverage are adjacent cells. 
     
     
         6 . The electronic device according to  claim 1 , wherein the cell providing second coverage is located within the cell providing first coverage. 
     
     
         7 . A method for controlling a cell providing first coverage and a cell providing second coverage, comprising circuitry configured to:
 acquiring load information of the cell providing first coverage;   acquiring information indicating interference between the cell providing first coverage and the cell providing second coverage;   monitoring an operation state of the cell providing second coverage; and   when the cell providing first coverage is overloaded and the cell providing second coverage is in an off state, through an inter-cell interface, requesting the cell providing second coverage to decrease the level of inactivity of the cell providing second coverage, wherein decreasing the level of inactivity includes changing a cell operation state from an off state to an on state.   
     
     
         8 . The method according to  claim 7 , further comprising requesting the cell providing second coverage, through the inter-cell interface and based on the information indicating the interference, to increase the level of inactivity of the cell providing second coverage. 
     
     
         9 . The method according to  claim 8 , further comprising performing the requesting when the information indicating that the interference between the cell providing first coverage and the cell providing second coverage exceeds a predetermined level. 
     
     
         10 . The method according to  claim 7 , wherein when a resource use ratio of a physical downlink data channel of the cell providing first coverage exceeds a threshold, the cell providing first coverage is overloaded. 
     
     
         11 . The method according to  claim 7 , wherein the cell providing first coverage and the cell providing second coverage are adjacent cells. 
     
     
         12 . The method according to  claim 7 , wherein the cell providing second coverage is located within the cell providing first coverage.