CN106961686B - Method and apparatus for generating virtual cells across multiple neighboring macro cells - Google Patents
Method and apparatus for generating virtual cells across multiple neighboring macro cells Download PDFInfo
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- CN106961686B CN106961686B CN201610015699.8A CN201610015699A CN106961686B CN 106961686 B CN106961686 B CN 106961686B CN 201610015699 A CN201610015699 A CN 201610015699A CN 106961686 B CN106961686 B CN 106961686B
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- H—ELECTRICITY
- H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
- H04W—WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
- H04W16/00—Network planning, e.g. coverage or traffic planning tools; Network deployment, e.g. resource partitioning or cells structures
- H04W16/18—Network planning tools
- H04W16/20—Network planning tools for indoor coverage or short range network deployment
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- H—ELECTRICITY
- H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
- H04W—WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
- H04W16/00—Network planning, e.g. coverage or traffic planning tools; Network deployment, e.g. resource partitioning or cells structures
- H04W16/22—Traffic simulation tools or models
- H04W16/225—Traffic simulation tools or models for indoor or short range network
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- H—ELECTRICITY
- H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
- H04W—WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
- H04W4/00—Services specially adapted for wireless communication networks; Facilities therefor
- H04W4/02—Services making use of location information
- H04W4/025—Services making use of location information using location based information parameters
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Abstract
The embodiment of the disclosure discloses a method and equipment for generating a virtual cell across a plurality of adjacent macro cells, wherein the method comprises the following steps: in response to a user equipment being located in a first macro cell and being adjacent to a boundary of the first macro cell, sending request information to one or more second macro base stations adjacent to the first macro cell to request generation of a virtual cell spanning the first macro cell and the second macro cell; and in response to receiving acknowledgement information for the request information, generating the virtual cell for the user equipment such that the virtual cell transmits data to the user equipment in a joint manner independent of the first macro cell and the second macro cell.
Description
Technical Field
Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to the field of wireless communications, and more particularly, to a method and apparatus for generating a virtual cell across multiple neighboring macro cells.
Background
Traffic demand in mobile networks is expected to increase substantially in the coming years. To meet this growing demand, one viable solution is to deploy very dense networks, also referred to as ultra-dense networks.
However, there are two serious problems in dense networks. One problem is that the User Equipment (UE) may have to face multiple severe interferences, and another problem is that the user equipment may be handed over more frequently between multiple small cells.
To solve the above two problems, a mechanism of a virtual cell may be considered. Generally, a virtual cell is composed of a set of small cells (or transmission points, TPs), and the virtual cell is used for interference coordination and joint transmission. Generally, the virtual cell is UE-centric, that is, the virtual cell may change accordingly as the UE moves. If the UE moves to the edge of one macro cell, a plurality of small cells belonging to different macro cells may form one virtual cell, as shown in fig. 1.
In this scenario, the problem of how to generate a virtual cell containing multiple small cells (or TPs) belonging to different macro-cells is not well studied. Considering that this scenario often occurs in case the UE takes over (or switches), it is necessary to design a mechanism to support this scenario.
Disclosure of Invention
To address the above issues, various embodiments of the present disclosure provide a method and apparatus for generating a virtual cell across multiple neighboring macro cells. By the method and the equipment, when the UE moves to the boundaries of a plurality of adjacent macro cells, one virtual cell is generated across the adjacent macro cells, and data is transmitted to the UE in a joint mode. In this way, the concept of a cell is weakened and a plurality of small cells form one virtual cell to jointly provide a data service to the UE.
One aspect of the present disclosure relates to a method for generating a virtual cell across a plurality of neighboring macro cells in a first macro cell, comprising: in response to a user equipment being located in a first macro cell and being adjacent to a boundary of the first macro cell, sending request information to one or more second macro base stations adjacent to the first macro cell to request generation of a virtual cell spanning the first macro cell and the second macro cell; and generating the virtual cell for the user equipment in response to receiving acknowledgement information for the request information.
According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, in response to receiving the acknowledgement information for the request information, generating the virtual cell for the user equipment includes: in response to receiving acknowledgement information for the request information, generating a virtual cell for the user equipment across the first macro cell and the one or more second macro cells, sending data to the user equipment in a joint manner.
According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the request information includes an identification of a plurality of first candidate small cells including a plurality of small cells from the first macro cell and the second macro cell that are requested to be included in the virtual cell; and the confirmation information comprises an identification of at least one second candidate small cell comprising a small cell selected from a plurality of the first candidate small cells that is allowed to be included in the virtual cell. It is noted that the acknowledgement information may also not contain any small cells of the second macro cell.
According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, in response to receiving the acknowledgement information for the request information, generating the virtual cell for the user equipment includes: creating a new virtual cell for the user equipment across the first macro cell and the one or more second macro cells in the absence of a virtual cell for the user equipment; or in the case that a virtual cell for the user equipment already exists, updating the virtual cell for the user equipment across the first macro cell and the one or more second macro cells to obtain an updated virtual cell.
According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, wherein creating a new virtual cell for the user equipment across the first macro cell and the one or more second macro cells comprises: forming at least one small cell from the first macro cell and at least one small cell from the one or more second macro cells into a new virtual cell; and updating the virtual cell for the user equipment across the first macro cell and the one or more second macro cells to obtain an updated virtual cell comprises: adding at least one small cell from the one or more second macro cells to an existing virtual cell and/or updating a small cell from the first macro cell in the existing virtual cell.
According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, in response to receiving the acknowledgement information for the request information, generating the virtual cell for the user equipment includes: receiving report information including channel state information from a plurality of small cells of the one or more second macro cells; and based on the received report information, the first macro base station making a decision to generate the virtual cell in order to generate the virtual cell for the user equipment.
According to an embodiment of the disclosure, generating a virtual cell for the user equipment across the first macro cell and the one or more second macro cells comprises: the first macro base station sends configuration information of uplink sounding reference signals of the UE to the first candidate small cells, so that each first candidate small cell estimates channel state information between the first candidate small cell and the user equipment based on the configuration information of the uplink sounding reference signals, and feeds the channel state information back to the first macro base station, and the virtual cell is generated for the user equipment.
According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the method includes: based on the fed back channel state information, the first macro base station making a decision whether to generate the virtual cell containing the second candidate small cell; and in response to making a decision to generate the virtual cell including the second alternative small cell, the first macro base station sending the generation decision information to the second macro base station to generate the virtual cell for the user equipment.
According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the method includes: in response to receiving acknowledgement information for the generation decision information, the first macro base station generating the virtual cell; and in the case that there is no virtual cell for the user equipment before, sending configuration information for the virtual cell, including a virtual cell ID and a configuration of a primary small cell, to all small cells in the virtual cell; the primary small cell should acquire the configurations of the virtual cells other small cells from the first macro cell, including the reference signal configurations and their physical cell IDs; and in the case that a virtual cell for the user equipment already exists before, transmitting configuration information for the virtual cell to a primary small cell of the virtual cells.
According to an embodiment of the disclosure, the method further comprises: the primary small cell of the virtual cell receives status information of resource allocation from the second candidate small cell.
According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the method includes: the first macro base station sends configuration information of the virtual cell to the user equipment, so that the user equipment sends channel state information between the user equipment and the virtual cell to the main small cell in the virtual cell, and data are sent between the user equipment and the virtual cell.
Another aspect of the disclosure relates to an apparatus for generating a virtual cell across a plurality of neighboring macro cells in a first macro cell, comprising: virtual cell requesting means for sending request information to one or more second macro base stations adjacent to each other to request generation of a virtual cell spanning a first macro cell and a second macro cell in response to a user equipment being located in the first macro cell and being adjacent to a boundary of the first macro cell; and virtual cell generating means for generating the virtual cell for the user equipment in response to receiving the confirmation information for the request information.
According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the virtual cell generation apparatus is configured to: in response to receiving acknowledgement information for the request information, generating a virtual cell for the user equipment across the first macro cell and the one or more second macro cells such that the virtual cell transmits data to the user equipment in its entirety independent of the first macro cell and the second macro cell.
According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the request information includes an identification of a plurality of first candidate small cells including a plurality of small cells from the first macro cell and the second macro cell that are requested to be included in the virtual cell; and the confirmation information comprises an identification of at least one second candidate small cell comprising a small cell selected from a plurality of the first candidate small cells that is allowed to be included in the virtual cell.
According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the virtual cell generation apparatus includes: a virtual cell creating unit, configured to create a new virtual cell for the user equipment across the first macro cell and the one or more second macro cells if there is no virtual cell for the user equipment; and a virtual cell updating unit, configured to, in a case that a virtual cell for the user equipment already exists, update the virtual cell for the user equipment across the first macro cell and the one or more second macro cells to obtain an updated virtual cell.
According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the virtual cell creation unit is configured to: forming at least one small cell from the first macro cell and at least one small cell from the one or more second macro cells into a new virtual cell; and the virtual cell update unit is configured to: adding at least one small cell from the one or more second macro cells to an existing virtual cell and/or updating a small cell from the first macro cell in the existing virtual cell.
According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the virtual cell generation apparatus includes: a report information receiving unit for receiving report information including channel state information from a plurality of small cells of the one or more second macro cells; and a decision determining unit, configured to make the first macro base station make a decision to generate the virtual cell based on the received report information, so as to generate the virtual cell for the user equipment.
According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the virtual cell generation apparatus includes: a configuration information sending unit, configured to enable the first macro base station to send configuration information of the uplink sounding reference signal to the plurality of first candidate small cells, so that each first candidate small cell estimates channel state information between itself and the user equipment based on the configuration information of the uplink sounding reference signal, and feeds back the channel state information to the first macro base station, thereby generating the virtual cell for the user equipment.
According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the apparatus includes: a decision determination unit, configured to make the first macro base station make a decision whether to generate the virtual cell including the second candidate small cell based on the fed back channel state information; and a decision information sending unit, configured to, in response to a decision to generate the virtual cell including the second candidate small cell, cause the first macro base station to send the generation decision information to the second macro base station so as to generate the virtual cell for the user equipment.
According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the apparatus includes: a virtual cell generation unit that generates the virtual cell by the first macro base station in response to receiving the confirmation information for the generation decision information; and a first configuration information transmitting unit configured to transmit configuration information for the virtual cell to all small cells in the virtual cell, in a case where there is no virtual cell for the user equipment before; and a second configuration information transmitting unit configured to transmit configuration information for the virtual cell to a primary small cell among the virtual cells, in a case where the virtual cell for the user equipment already exists before.
According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the apparatus further comprises: and a state information receiving unit configured to cause the primary small cell of the virtual cell to receive state information of resource allocation from the second candidate small cell.
According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the apparatus includes: a data transmission establishing unit, configured to enable the first macro base station to send configuration information of the virtual cell to the user equipment, so that the user equipment sends channel state information between the user equipment and the virtual cell to the main small cell in the virtual cell, so as to send data between the user equipment and the virtual cell.
Drawings
Figure 1 shows a schematic diagram of a virtual cell comprising a plurality of small cells belonging to different neighbouring macro cells.
Fig. 2 shows a flow diagram of a method for generating a virtual cell across multiple neighboring macro cells according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.
Fig. 3 shows a flow diagram of a process for creating a virtual cell across multiple neighboring macro cells in the absence of a virtual cell for a user equipment before according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.
Fig. 4 shows a flow diagram of a process for updating a virtual cell across multiple neighboring macro cells in the case where a virtual cell for a user equipment already exists before, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.
Fig. 5 illustrates a block diagram of an apparatus for generating a virtual cell across multiple neighboring macro cells, in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure.
Detailed Description
The principles of the present disclosure will be described below with reference to a number of example embodiments shown in the drawings. While the preferred embodiments of the present disclosure have been illustrated in the accompanying drawings, it is to be understood that these embodiments are described merely for the purpose of enabling those skilled in the art to better understand and to practice the present disclosure, and are not intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure in any way.
Figure 1 includes a schematic diagram of a virtual cell of a plurality of small cells belonging to different neighboring macro cells.
Figure 1 shows a heterogeneous network (heterogeneous) architecture in which dense small cells 140 or wireless access points are deployed under the coverage of macro base stations (menbs) 101, 102. Each small cell 140 contains one small base station SeNB 105. In the virtual cell 130 shown in fig. 1, one of the small cells may be selected as a primary small cell (MTP)103 (e.g., shown in the dashed box), which will be responsible for dynamic scheduling of data transmissions in the virtual cell 130. In this network structure, a dual connectivity mechanism is employed, i.e. the UE 104 is connected to the MeNB 101 and the virtual cell 130 simultaneously, as indicated by the bidirectional arrows a1 and a2 in fig. 1. The double-lined arrow b1 between the serving MeNB 101 and the cooperating MeNB 102 schematically represents the exchange of information between the macro base stations of the two macro cells. Herein, a small cell or a wireless access point is also referred to as a Transmission Point (TP). As shown in fig. 1, the UE is located at the edge of a first macro cell 110, which is a serving macro cell, and adjacent to a second macro cell 120, which is a cooperating cell.
It is noted that the present disclosure aims to provide a solution for generating a virtual cell based on multiple small cells from different macro cells at the border of multiple neighboring macro cells. Although only two neighboring macro cells are shown in fig. 1, it should be understood that embodiments of the present disclosure are not limited to only two macro cells, and that the case of more than two neighboring macro cells (e.g., the case of 3, 4, 5, or more neighboring macro cells) is also within the scope of the present disclosure.
Fig. 2 shows a flow diagram of a method 200 for generating a virtual cell across multiple neighboring macro cells in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. The method 200 mainly includes the following steps S210 and S220.
Step S210: in response to a user equipment being located in a first macro cell and being adjacent to a boundary of the first macro cell, sending request information to one or more second macro base stations adjacent to the first macro cell to request generation of a virtual cell spanning the first macro cell and the second macro cell; and
step S220: in response to receiving acknowledgement information for the request information, the virtual cell is generated for the user equipment.
Fig. 3 and 4 show flowcharts of a process for creating or updating a virtual cell across multiple neighboring macro cells, respectively, in the case where a virtual cell for a user equipment has not previously existed (i.e., case 1) and in the case where a virtual cell for a user equipment has previously existed (i.e., case 2), according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.
The method 200 shown in fig. 2 is described in detail below with reference to fig. 1 in conjunction with fig. 3 or fig. 4:
in step S210, in response to a user equipment being located in a first macro cell and being adjacent to a boundary of the first macro cell, a first macro base station of the first macro cell sends request information to corresponding second macro base stations of one or more second macro cells adjacent to the first macro cell to request generation of a virtual cell containing a plurality of small cells across the first macro cell and the one or more second macro cells for the user equipment.
According to the specific example shown in fig. 3 or 4, in step 1: the serving MeNB as the first macro base station and the cooperating MeNB as the second macro base station exchange information (as indicated by the double-headed arrow b1 in fig. 1) for generating a new virtual cell unit. In this step, the serving MeNB may send request information to the cooperating MeNB to schedule the small cells belonging to the cooperating MeNB.
Next, in step S220, in response to the first macro base station receiving the acknowledgement information for the request information, a virtual cell is generated for the user equipment across the first macro cell and the one or more second macro cells, so that the virtual cell transmits data to the user equipment in an integrated manner independent of the first macro cell and the second macro cell.
According to the specific example shown in fig. 3 or 4, also in step 1: the cooperating MeNB as the second macro base station may send acknowledgement information to the serving MeNB as the first macro base station.
According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the request information comprises an identification of a plurality of first candidate small cells, including a plurality of small cells from the first macro cell and the second macro cell, requested to be included in the virtual cell; and the confirmation information comprises an identification of at least one second candidate small cell comprising a small cell selected from a plurality of the first candidate small cells that is allowed to be included in the virtual cell.
According to the specific example shown in fig. 3 or fig. 4, the request information mainly includes an Identification (ID) of the candidate small cell, and the confirmation information may include information of which small cells may be scheduled by the serving MeNB.
According to embodiments of the present disclosure, the following two cases are considered for generating a virtual unit:
-case 1: there has not been a virtual cell for the user equipment before; and
case 2: there has previously been a case of a virtual cell for a user equipment.
According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, step S220 includes: in the absence of a virtual cell for the user equipment (i.e., case 1), creating a new virtual cell for the user equipment across the first macro cell and the one or more second macro cells; and in the event that a virtual cell for the user equipment already exists (i.e., case 2), updating the virtual cell for the user equipment across the first macro cell and the one or more second macro cells to obtain an updated virtual cell.
According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, creating a new virtual cell for the user equipment across the first macro cell and the one or more second macro cells comprises: forming at least one small cell from the first macro cell and at least one small cell from the one or more second macro cells into a new virtual cell; and updating the virtual cell for the user equipment across the first macro cell and the one or more second macro cells to obtain an updated virtual cell comprises: adding at least one small cell from the one or more second macro cells to an existing virtual cell and/or updating a small cell from the first macro cell in the existing virtual cell.
In both cases, step S220 may include: receiving report information including channel state information from a plurality of small cells of the one or more second macro cells; and based on the received report information, the first macro base station making a decision whether to generate the virtual cell, wherein the report information includes, but is not limited to, Channel State Information (CSI), its cell Identification (ID), and configuration information of a signal state information reference signal (CSI-RS).
According to a more specific embodiment of the present disclosure, in both cases, the step S220 may include: a small cell that does not belong to the serving cell of the UE may report Channel State Information (CSI), its cell Identity (ID), and configuration information of a signal state information reference signal (CSI-RS); and based on the received information, the serving MeNB may make a decision whether to generate a virtual cell and may send configuration information to small cells belonging to the virtual cell, and the serving MeNB may also send the configuration information to the UE for channel estimation.
According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, step S220 includes: the first macro base station sends configuration information of uplink sounding reference signals to the first candidate small cells; and based on the configuration information of the uplink sounding reference signal, each first candidate small cell estimates channel state information between the first candidate small cell and the user equipment and feeds the channel state information back to the first macro base station.
According to the specific example shown in fig. 3 or 4, in step 2: the serving MeNB may send configuration information, e.g., Uplink (UL) Sounding Reference Signals (SRS), and report conditions to the alternative small cells (transmission points) for reception of SRS.
Note that the serving MeNB may be made aware of which small cells are located in the vicinity of the UE by:
-assuming that the UE has established a connection with the serving MeNB, and the serving MeNB may send a measurement configuration to the UE;
the UE may detect the small cells around it and then the UE may report the measurement results to the serving MeNB.
According to the specific example shown in fig. 3 or 4, in step 3: the alternative small cell may measure and estimate the CSI (channel quality information, CQI, is also included). In step 4: the alternative small cell may report CSI (CQI is also included) to the serving MeNB, along with the physical cell ID, if the reporting condition is met. Those small cells not belonging to the serving MeNB need to report CSI and CSI-RS configurations, as well as physical cell ID.
According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the method 200 includes: based on the fed back channel state information, the first macro base station making a decision whether to generate the virtual cell containing the second candidate small cell; and in response to making a decision to generate the virtual cell including the second candidate small cell, the first macro base station sending the generation decision information to the second macro base station.
According to the specific example shown in fig. 3 or 4, in step 5: the serving MeNB makes a decision whether to generate a virtual cell.
According to the specific example shown in fig. 3 or 4, in step 6: the serving MeNB and the cooperating MeNB exchange virtual cell generation decision information. In this step, the serving MeNB may inform the cooperating MeNB which small cells are to be included in the new virtual cell, and the cooperating MeNB may confirm the generation of the virtual cell.
According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the method 200 includes: in response to receiving acknowledgement information for the generation decision information, the first macro base station generating the virtual cell; and in the absence of a virtual cell for the user equipment before, sending configuration information for the virtual cell to all small cells in the virtual cell; and in the case that a virtual cell for the user equipment already exists before, transmitting configuration information for the virtual cell to a primary small cell of the virtual cells.
According to the specific example shown in fig. 3, in case there was no virtual cell for the user equipment before (i.e. in case 1), in step 7: if the serving MeNB makes a decision to generate a virtual cell, the serving MeNB may send the configuration of the virtual cell to the small cell (transfer point) belonging to the virtual cell. The configuration may include, but is not limited to, the following information: which small cell is the primary small cell (or MTP), CSI-RS configuration, and virtual cell ID.
According to the specific example shown in fig. 4, in case a virtual cell for the user equipment already exists before (i.e. in case 2), in step 7: if the serving MeNB makes a decision to generate a virtual cell, the serving MeNB may send the decision and the corresponding configuration only to the primary small cell (MTP). Note that the MTP may also change for the updated virtual cell.
It is noted that two scenarios of virtual cell generation schemes are proposed in the present disclosure. The difference is mainly in step 7 described above. In step 7 in case 1, the macro base station is to transmit signaling to each cell of the virtual cells. That is, each small cell is made aware of which small cell is the primary small cell (MTP). In step 7 in case 2, the macro base station mainly needs to inform the MTP about the update situation of the small cell.
According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the method 200 includes: the second candidate small cell transmits status information of resource allocation to the primary small cell of the virtual cell.
According to the specific example shown in fig. 3 or 4, in step 8: small cells (transfer points) not belonging to the serving MeNB need to send the status of the resource allocation to the primary small cell of the virtual cell.
According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the method includes: the first macro base station sending configuration information of the virtual cell to the user equipment;
according to the specific example shown in fig. 3 or 4, in step 9: the serving MeNB sends configuration information of the virtual cell, e.g., a physical cell ID of the TP, a CSI-RS configuration, a virtual cell ID, and a configuration of the MTP, to the UE.
And transmitting, in response to the user equipment transmitting channel state information between the user equipment and the virtual cell to the primary one of the virtual cells, data between the user equipment and an information virtual cell.
According to the specific example shown in fig. 3 or 4, in step 10: and the UE feeds back the CSI to the MTP of the virtual cell.
According to the specific example shown in fig. 3 or 4, in step 11: data transmission between the UE and the virtual cell is started.
Fig. 5 illustrates a block diagram of an apparatus 500 for generating a virtual cell across multiple neighboring macro cells, according to an embodiment of the disclosure.
The apparatus 500 comprises: virtual cell requesting means 510 for, in response to the user equipment being located in a first macro cell and being adjacent to a boundary of the first macro cell, transmitting request information to one or more second macro base stations neighboring to the first macro cell to request generation of a virtual cell spanning the first macro cell and the second macro cell; and a virtual cell generating means 520, configured to generate the virtual cell for the user equipment in response to receiving the acknowledgement information for the request information.
According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the virtual cell generating apparatus 520 is configured to: in response to receiving acknowledgement information for the request information, generating a virtual cell for the user equipment across the first macro cell and the one or more second macro cells such that the virtual cell transmits data to the user equipment in its entirety independent of the first macro cell and the second macro cell.
According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the request information includes an identification of a plurality of first candidate small cells including a plurality of small cells from the first macro cell and the second macro cell that are requested to be included in the virtual cell; and the confirmation information comprises an identification of at least one second candidate small cell comprising a small cell selected from a plurality of the first candidate small cells that is allowed to be included in the virtual cell.
According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the virtual cell generating apparatus 520 includes: a virtual cell creating unit, configured to create a new virtual cell for the user equipment across the first macro cell and the one or more second macro cells if there is no virtual cell for the user equipment; and a virtual cell updating unit, configured to, in a case that a virtual cell for the user equipment already exists, update the virtual cell for the user equipment across the first macro cell and the one or more second macro cells to obtain an updated virtual cell.
According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the virtual cell creation unit is configured to: forming at least one small cell from the first macro cell and at least one small cell from the one or more second macro cells into a new virtual cell; and the virtual cell update unit is configured to: adding at least one small cell from the one or more second macro cells to an existing virtual cell and/or updating a small cell from the first macro cell in the existing virtual cell.
According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the virtual cell generating apparatus 520 includes: a report information receiving unit that receives report information including channel state information from a plurality of small cells of the one or more second macro cells; and a decision determining unit, configured to make the first macro base station make a decision to generate the virtual cell based on the received report information, so as to generate the virtual cell for the user equipment.
According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the virtual cell generating apparatus 520 includes: a configuration information sending unit, configured to enable the first macro base station to send configuration information of the uplink sounding reference signal to the plurality of first candidate small cells, so that each first candidate small cell estimates channel state information between itself and the user equipment based on the configuration information of the uplink sounding reference signal, and feeds back the channel state information to the first macro base station, so as to generate the virtual cell for the user equipment.
According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the apparatus 500 includes: a decision determination unit, configured to make the first macro base station make a decision whether to generate the virtual cell including the second candidate small cell based on the fed back channel state information; and a decision information sending unit, configured to, in response to a decision to generate the virtual cell including the second candidate small cell, cause the first macro base station to send the generation decision information to the second macro base station so as to generate the virtual cell for the user equipment.
According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the apparatus 500 includes: a virtual cell generation unit that generates the virtual cell by the first macro base station in response to receiving the confirmation information for the generation decision information; and a first configuration information transmitting unit configured to transmit configuration information for the virtual cell to all small cells in the virtual cell, in a case where there is no virtual cell for the user equipment before; and a second configuration information transmitting unit configured to transmit configuration information for the virtual cell to a primary small cell among the virtual cells, in a case where the virtual cell for the user equipment already exists before.
According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the apparatus 500 further comprises: and a state information receiving unit configured to cause the primary small cell of the virtual cell to receive state information of resource allocation from the second candidate small cell.
According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the apparatus 500 includes: a data transmission establishing unit, configured to enable the first macro base station to send configuration information of the virtual cell to the user equipment, so that the user equipment sends channel state information between the user equipment and the virtual cell to the main small cell in the virtual cell, so as to send data between the user equipment and the virtual cell.
In summary, various embodiments of the present disclosure provide a method and apparatus for generating a virtual cell across multiple neighboring macro cells. The method comprises the following steps: in response to a user equipment being located in a first macro cell and being adjacent to a boundary of the first macro cell, sending request information to one or more second macro base stations adjacent to the first macro cell to request generation of a virtual cell spanning the first macro cell and the second macro cell; and generating the virtual cell for the user equipment in response to receiving acknowledgement information for the request information. In this way, the virtual cell is enabled to transmit data to the user equipment in an integrated manner across a plurality of macro cells.
The above description is intended only as an alternative embodiment of the present disclosure and is not intended to limit the present disclosure, which may be modified and varied by those skilled in the art. Any modification, equivalent replacement, improvement, etc. made within the spirit and principle of the present disclosure should be included in the protection scope of the present disclosure.
Claims (20)
1. A method for generating a virtual cell across a plurality of neighboring macro cells, comprising:
in response to a user equipment being located in a first macro cell and being adjacent to a boundary of the first macro cell, sending request information to one or more second macro base stations adjacent to the first macro cell to request generation of a virtual cell spanning the first macro cell and the second macro cell; and
generating the virtual cell for the user equipment in response to receiving acknowledgement information for the request information,
wherein the request information comprises an identification of a plurality of first candidate small cells, including a plurality of small cells from the first macro cell and the second macro cell, requested to be included in the virtual cell; and is
The confirmation information comprises an identification of at least one second candidate small cell comprising a small cell selected from a plurality of the first candidate small cells that is allowed to be included in the virtual cell.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the virtual cell for the user equipment in response to receiving acknowledgement information for the request information comprises:
in response to receiving acknowledgement information for the request information, generating a virtual cell for the user equipment across the first macro cell and the one or more second macro cells such that the virtual cell transmits data to the user equipment in a joint manner independent of the first macro cell and the second macro cell.
3. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the virtual cell for the user equipment in response to receiving acknowledgement information for the request information comprises:
creating a new virtual cell for the user equipment across the first macro cell and the one or more second macro cells in the absence of a virtual cell for the user equipment; or
In the event that a virtual cell for the user equipment already exists, updating the virtual cell for the user equipment across the first macro cell and the one or more second macro cells to obtain an updated virtual cell.
4. The method of claim 3, wherein
Creating a new virtual cell for the user equipment across the first macro cell and the one or more second macro cells comprises:
forming at least one small cell from the first macro cell and at least one small cell from the one or more second macro cells into a new virtual cell; and is
Updating the virtual cell for the user equipment across the first macro cell and the one or more second macro cells to obtain an updated virtual cell comprises:
adding at least one small cell from the one or more second macro cells to an existing virtual cell and/or updating a small cell from the first macro cell in the existing virtual cell.
5. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the virtual cell for the user equipment in response to receiving acknowledgement information for the request information comprises:
receiving report information including channel state information from a plurality of small cells of the one or more second macro cells; and
based on the received reporting information, making a decision to generate the virtual cell for the user equipment.
6. The method of claim 1, wherein generating a virtual cell for the user equipment across the first macro cell and the one or more second macro cells comprises:
sending configuration information of an uplink sounding reference signal of the user equipment to a plurality of first candidate small cells, so that each first candidate small cell estimates channel state information between the first candidate small cell and the user equipment based on the configuration information of the uplink sounding reference signal, and feeds back the channel state information to the first macro base station, thereby generating the virtual cell for the user equipment.
7. The method of claim 6, comprising:
making a decision whether to generate the virtual cell containing the second candidate small cell based on the fed back channel state information; and
in response to making a decision to generate the virtual cell including the second alternative small cell, sending the generation decision information to the second macro base station to generate the virtual cell for the user equipment.
8. The method of claim 7, comprising:
generating the virtual cell in response to receiving acknowledgement information for the generating decision information; and is
Transmitting configuration information for the virtual cell to all of the virtual cells in the case where there was no virtual cell for the user equipment before; and
transmitting configuration information for a virtual cell to a primary small cell of the virtual cells, in a case where the virtual cell for the user equipment already exists before.
9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:
a primary small cell of the virtual cells receives status information of resource allocation from the second candidate small cell.
10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:
transmitting configuration information of the virtual cell to the user equipment, so that the user equipment transmits channel state information between the user equipment and the virtual cell to the main small cell in the virtual cell, so as to transmit data between the user equipment and the virtual cell.
11. An apparatus for generating a virtual cell across a plurality of neighboring macro cells, comprising:
virtual cell requesting means for sending request information to one or more second macro base stations adjacent to each other to request generation of a virtual cell spanning a first macro cell and a second macro cell in response to a user equipment being located in the first macro cell and being adjacent to a boundary of the first macro cell; and
virtual cell generating means for generating the virtual cell for the user equipment in response to receiving the confirmation information for the request information,
wherein the request information comprises an identification of a plurality of first candidate small cells, including a plurality of small cells from the first macro cell and the second macro cell, requested to be included in the virtual cell; and is
The confirmation information comprises an identification of at least one second candidate small cell comprising a small cell selected from a plurality of the first candidate small cells that is allowed to be included in the virtual cell.
12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the virtual cell generation means is configured to:
in response to receiving acknowledgement information for the request information, generating a virtual cell for the user equipment across the first macro cell and the one or more second macro cells such that the virtual cell transmits data to the user equipment in a joint manner independent of the first macro cell and the second macro cell.
13. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the virtual cell generation means comprises:
a virtual cell creating unit configured to create, for the user equipment, a new virtual cell across the first macro cell and the one or more second macro cells if there is no virtual cell for the user equipment; and
a virtual cell updating unit, configured to, in a case that a virtual cell for the user equipment already exists, update the virtual cell for the user equipment across the first macro cell and the one or more second macro cells to obtain an updated virtual cell.
14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein
The virtual cell creation unit is configured to: forming at least one small cell from the first macro cell and at least one small cell from the one or more second macro cells into a new virtual cell; and is
The virtual cell update unit is configured to: adding at least one small cell from the one or more second macro cells to an existing virtual cell and/or updating a small cell from the first macro cell in the existing virtual cell.
15. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the virtual cell generation means comprises:
a report information receiving unit for receiving report information including channel state information from a plurality of small cells of the one or more second macro cells; and
a decision determining unit, configured to make a decision to generate the virtual cell based on the received report information, so as to generate the virtual cell for the user equipment.
16. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the virtual cell generation means comprises:
a configuration information sending unit, configured to send configuration information of an uplink sounding reference signal to the plurality of first candidate small cells, so that each first candidate small cell estimates channel state information between the first candidate small cell and the user equipment based on the configuration information of the uplink sounding reference signal, and feeds back the channel state information to the first macro base station, thereby generating the virtual cell for the user equipment.
17. The apparatus of claim 16, comprising:
a decision determination unit, configured to make a decision whether to generate the virtual cell including the second candidate small cell based on the fed back channel state information; and
a decision information sending unit, configured to send, in response to a decision to generate the virtual cell including the second candidate small cell, the generated decision information to the second macro base station so as to generate the virtual cell for the user equipment.
18. The apparatus of claim 17, comprising:
a virtual cell generation unit that generates the virtual cell in response to receiving confirmation information for the generation decision information; and is
A first configuration information transmitting unit configured to transmit configuration information for a virtual cell to all small cells in the virtual cell, if the virtual cell for the user equipment does not exist before; and
a second configuration information transmitting unit, configured to transmit configuration information for a virtual cell to a primary small cell among the virtual cells, if the virtual cell for the user equipment already exists before.
19. The apparatus of claim 18, further comprising:
a state information receiving unit configured to cause a primary small cell of the virtual cells to receive state information of resource allocation from the second candidate small cell.
20. The apparatus of claim 19, further comprising:
a data transmission establishing unit, configured to send configuration information of the virtual cell to the user equipment, so that the user equipment sends channel state information between the user equipment and the virtual cell to the primary small cell in the virtual cell, so as to send data between the user equipment and the virtual cell.
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