Methods and systems for using femtocells to address macro-network backhaul congestion
US8103310B1 · kind B1 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Aug 7, 2009 |
| Grant date | Jan 24, 2012 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Jul 20, 2030 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
- CPC primaryH04W92/12
- WIPO fieldDigital communication
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
Methods and systems are provided for using femtocells to address macro-network backhaul congestion. In an embodiment, a macro base transceiver station (BTS) that has a backhaul connection to a radio network controller (RNC) detects that a current utilization of the backhaul exceeds a backhaul-congestion threshold, and responsively identifies one or more sector-carriers having a respective current air-interface utilization that is less than a respective sector-carrier-congestion threshold for the respective sector-carrier. The macro BTS further identifies one or more femtocells that are positioned in the coverage area of the one or more identified sector-carriers, and offloads some reverse-link traffic to each identified femtocell over the forward link of an identified sector-carrier in whose coverage area the respective identified femtocell is positioned, for forwarding of the offloaded traffic by the one or more identified femtocells over a packet-data network to an intended destination.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.