Adjusting transmit power across a network

Abstract

Systems and methods are disclosed for adjusting transmit power in a wireless network. In one embodiment, a method is disclosed that includes identifying a selected base station with a first coverage area for adjustment of transmit power; identifying a plurality of neighboring base stations with coverage areas nearby the first coverage area; retrieving a plurality of signal strength measurements from a plurality of mobile devices within the coverage areas of the plurality of neighboring base stations; determining, based on the plurality of measurements, an effect on the plurality of mobile devices within the coverage areas of the plurality of neighboring base stations; and sending an instruction for adjustment of transmit power to the selected base station.

The invention claimed is: 
     
       1. A method for adjusting transmit power in a wireless network, comprising:
 identifying a selected base station with a first coverage area for adjustment of transmit power;   identifying a plurality of neighboring base stations with coverage areas nearby the first coverage area;   retrieving a plurality of signal strength measurements from a plurality of mobile devices within the coverage areas of the plurality of neighboring base stations;   calculating a metric corresponding to a number of mobile devices within the coverage areas of the plurality of neighboring base stations that would be positively impacted by a decrease in power at the selected base station;   calculating a first metric corresponding to a number of mobile devices negatively impacted by an increase in power at the selected base station; and   sending an instruction, based on the metric, for adjustment of transmit power to the selected base station.   
     
     
       2. The method of claim  1  19, further comprising performing retrieving the plurality of measurements at a coordination server. 
     
     
       3. The method of claim  1  19, further comprising retrieving at least one signal strength measurement from at least one mobile device within the first coverage area. 
     
     
       4. The method of claim  1  19, further comprising receiving, at a coordination server, measurement reports from the plurality of mobile devices and storing, at the coordination server, the measurement reports indexed by time, originating mobile device, or serving base station of an originating mobile device. 
     
     
       5. A method for adjusting transmit power in a wireless network, comprising;
 identifying a selected base station with a first coverage area for adjustment of transmit power;   identifying a plurality of neighboring base stations with coverage areas nearby the first coverage area;   retrieving a plurality of signal strength measurements from a plurality of mobile devices within the coverage areas of the plurality of neighboring base stations;   receiving, at a coordination server, measurement reports from the plurality of mobile devices;   storing, at the coordination server, the measurement reports indexed by time, originating mobile device, and serving base station of an originating mobile device; and   sending an instruction, based on a metric, for adjustment of transmit power to the selected base station,   wherein the stored measurement reports are indexed by time, originating mobile device, and serving base station of the originating mobile device.   
     
     
       6. The method of claim  1  19, wherein the plurality of signal strength measurements comprise at least one of Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP) or Reference Signal Received Quality (RSRQ). 
     
     
       7. A method for adjusting transmit power in a wireless network, comprising:
 identifying a selected base station with a first coverage area for adjustment of transmit power; 
 identifying a plurality of neighboring base stations with coverage areas nearby the first coverage area; 
 retrieving a plurality of signal strength measurements from a plurality of mobile devices within the coverage areas of the plurality of neighboring base stations; 
 calculating a first metric corresponding to a number of mobile devices within a coverage areas of the plurality of neighboring base stations that would be negatively impacted by an increase in power at the selected base station; 
 sending an instruction, based on the first metric, for adjustment of transmit power to the selected base station; 
 subtracting a number of mobile devices that would be positively impacted by the decrease in power from a number of mobile devices that would be negatively impacted by the increase in power to obtain a first net number; 
 subtracting a number of user equipments reporting deterioration in signal to interference ratio (SINR) by the decrease in power from a number of user equipments reporting improvement in SINR by the increase in power to obtain a second net number; and 
 adding the first net number to the second net number to obtain a final number for determining whether to adjust the transmit power at the selected base station. 
 
     
     
       8. The method of  claim 7 , further comprising:
 calculating a third metric corresponding to an improvement in signal quality resulting from the increase in power at the selected base station; or 
 calculating a fourth metric corresponding to a reduction in signal quality resulting from a decrease in power at the selected base station. 
 
     
     
       9. The method of  claim 8 , further comprising calculating a decision metric based on the first metric, a second metric, the third metric, and the fourth metric, wherein the second metric corresponds to a number of mobile devices positively impacted by the decrease in power at the selected base station. 
     
     
       10. A controller for adjusting transmit power in a wireless network, comprising:
 a measurement report data store configured to receive measurement reports from mobile devices and to store the measurement reports indexed by a target base station and by a time; and 
 a processor configured to perform steps comprising:
 identifying a selected base station with a first coverage area for adjustment of transmit power; 
 
 identifying a plurality of neighboring base stations with coverage areas nearby the first coverage area; 
 calculating a first metric corresponding to a number of mobile devices within a the coverage areas of the plurality of neighboring base stations that would be negatively impacted by an increase in power at the selected base station; 
 calculating a second metric corresponding to a number of mobile devices within the coverage areas of the plurality of neighboring base stations that would be positively impacted by a decrease in power at the selected base station; and 
 sending an instruction for adjustment of transmit power to the selected base station based on the first and the second metric; and 
 selecting a first set of selected base stations and a second set of selected base stations, such that any power adjustment to any of the first set of selected base stations would not impact any of the second set of selected base stations, thereby enabling performing transmit power adjustment in parallel. 
 
     
     
       11. The controller of  claim 10 , wherein the processor is further configured to perform steps comprising retrieving a plurality of signal strength measurements from a plurality of mobile devices within the coverage areas of the plurality of neighboring base stations. 
     
     
       12. The controller of  claim 11 , wherein the controller is coupled to a plurality of base stations at a first interface and an evolved packet core at a second interface. 
     
     
       13. The controller of  claim 10 , wherein the selected base station is an eNodeb. 
     
     
       14. The method of  claim 7 , further comprising selecting a first set of selected base stations and a second set of selected base stations, such that any power adjustment to any of the first set of selected base stations would not impact any of the second set of selected base stations, thereby enabling performing transmit power adjustments in parallel. 
     
     
       15. The method of  claim 14 , further comprising selecting the first set of selected base stations such that each of the first set of selected base stations is separated from any base station of the second set of selected base stations by at least a minimum distance number of neighbor nodes; and repeating collecting measurements at a user-selected time interval. 
     
     
       16. The method of  claim 7 , wherein the increase in power is a multiple of a configurable increment. 
     
     
       17. The method of  claim 7 , further comprising:
 calculating, for each of the plurality of neighboring base stations, a ratio of a reference signal received power at the selected base station versus a reference signal received power at the neighboring base station; 
 verifying that each ratio is within a user-selected first minimum and first maximum threshold value for the increase in transmit power; 
 generating a weighted number for each of the plurality of neighboring base stations by multiplying each ratio with a user-selected weight; and 
 adding the plurality of generated weighted numbers to calculate a final weighted number reflecting the number of mobile devices that would be negatively impacted by the increase in transmit power. 
 
     
     
       18. The method of  claim 17 , further comprising applying an infinite impulse response filter to the final weighted number to obtain a filtered final weighted number, wherein the filtered final weighted number indicates the number of mobile devices that would be negatively impacted. 
     
     
       19. The method of  claim 1 , further comprising: A method for adjusting transmit power in a wireless network, comprising:
 identifying a selected base station with a first coverage area for adjustment of transmit power; 
 identifying a plurality of neighboring base stations with coverage areas nearby the first coverage area; 
 retrieving a plurality of signal strength measurements from a plurality of mobile devices within the coverage areas of the plurality of neighboring base stations; 
 calculating a first metric corresponding to a number of mobile devices within the coverage areas of the plurality of neighboring base stations that would be positively impacted by a decrease in power at the selected base station; 
 calculating a second metric corresponding to a number of mobile devices negatively impacted by an increase in power at the selected base station; 
 sending an instruction, based on the first and second metric, for adjustment of transmit power to the selected base station;  
 calculating, for each of the plurality of neighboring base stations, a ratio of a reference signal received power at the selected base station versus a reference signal received power at the neighboring base station; 
 verifying that each ratio is within a user-selected first minimum and first maximum threshold value for the decrease in transmit power; generating a weighted number for each of the plurality of neighboring base stations by multiplying the ratio with a user-selected weight; and 
 adding the plurality of generated weighted numbers to calculate a final weighted number reflecting the number of mobile devices that would be positively impacted by the decrease in transmit power. 
 
     
     
       20. The method of  claim 19 , further comprising applying an infinite impulse response filter to the final weighted number to obtain a filtered final weighted number, wherein the filtered final weighted number indicates the number of mobile devices that would be positively impacted. 
     
     
       21. The method of  claim 7 , further comprising increasing the transmit power at the selected base station if the final number is above a user-selected default, or decreasing the transmit power at the selected base station if the final number is below the user-selected default. 
     
     
       22. A method for adjusting transmit power in a wireless network, comprising:
 identifying a selected base station with a first coverage area for adjustment of transmit power;   identifying a plurality of neighboring base stations with coverage areas nearby the first coverage area;   retrieving a plurality of signal strength measurements from a plurality of mobile devices within the coverage areas of the plurality of neighboring base stations;   receiving, at a coordination server, measurement reports from the plurality of mobile devices;   storing, at the coordination server, the measurement reports indexed by time, originating mobile device, and serving base station of an originating mobile device;   sending an instruction, based on a metric, for adjustment of transmit power to the selected base station; and   selecting a first set of selected base stations and a second set of selected base stations, such that any power adjustment to any of the first set of selected base stations would not impact any of the second set of selected base stations, thereby enabling performing transmit power adjustments in parallel.    
     
     
       23. The method of claim 22, further comprising selecting the first set of selected base stations such that each of the first set of selected base stations is separated from any base station of the second set of selected base stations by at least a minimum distance number of neighbor nodes; and repeating collecting measurements at a user-selected time interval.  
     
     
       24. The method of claim 22, wherein the increase in power is a multiple of a configurable increment.  
     
     
       25. The method of claim 22, further comprising:
 calculating, for each of the plurality of neighboring base stations, a ratio of a reference signal received power at the selected base station versus a reference signal received power at the neighboring base station;   verifying that each ratio is within a user-selected first minimum and first maximum threshold value for the increase in transmit power;   generating a weighted number for each of the plurality of neighboring base stations by multiplying each ratio with a user-selected weight; and   adding the plurality of generated weighted numbers to calculate a final weighted number reflecting the number of mobile devices that would be negatively impacted by the increase in transmit power.    
     
     
       26. The method of claim 22, further comprising applying an infinite impulse response filter to a final weighted number to obtain a filtered final weighted number, wherein the filtered final weighted number indicates a number of mobile devices that would be negatively impacted by an adjustment to the transmit power.  
     
     
       27. The method of claim 22, further comprising increasing the transmit power at the selected base station if a final number is above a user-selected default, or decreasing the transmit power at the selected base station if the final number is below the user-selected default.