CN108966289B - Traffic distribution method and device - Google Patents

Traffic distribution method and device Download PDF

Info

Publication number
CN108966289B
CN108966289B CN201810770892.1A CN201810770892A CN108966289B CN 108966289 B CN108966289 B CN 108966289B CN 201810770892 A CN201810770892 A CN 201810770892A CN 108966289 B CN108966289 B CN 108966289B
Authority
CN
China
Prior art keywords
base station
voice service
traffic
communication network
sub
Prior art date
Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
Active
Application number
CN201810770892.1A
Other languages
Chinese (zh)
Other versions
CN108966289A (en
Inventor
姬莉莉
欧素萍
李新
范永坤
马志刚
Current Assignee (The listed assignees may be inaccurate. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy of the list.)
China United Network Communications Corp Ltd Xinxiang Branch
Original Assignee
China United Network Communications Corp Ltd Xinxiang Branch
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by China United Network Communications Corp Ltd Xinxiang Branch filed Critical China United Network Communications Corp Ltd Xinxiang Branch
Priority to CN201810770892.1A priority Critical patent/CN108966289B/en
Publication of CN108966289A publication Critical patent/CN108966289A/en
Application granted granted Critical
Publication of CN108966289B publication Critical patent/CN108966289B/en
Active legal-status Critical Current
Anticipated expiration legal-status Critical

Links

Images

Classifications

    • HELECTRICITY
    • H04ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04WWIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
    • H04W28/00Network traffic management; Network resource management
    • H04W28/02Traffic management, e.g. flow control or congestion control
    • H04W28/10Flow control between communication endpoints
    • HELECTRICITY
    • H04ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04WWIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
    • H04W36/00Hand-off or reselection arrangements
    • H04W36/0005Control or signalling for completing the hand-off
    • H04W36/0011Control or signalling for completing the hand-off for data sessions of end-to-end connection
    • H04W36/0033Control or signalling for completing the hand-off for data sessions of end-to-end connection with transfer of context information
    • HELECTRICITY
    • H04ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04WWIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
    • H04W36/00Hand-off or reselection arrangements
    • H04W36/14Reselecting a network or an air interface
    • HELECTRICITY
    • H04ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04WWIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
    • H04W36/00Hand-off or reselection arrangements
    • H04W36/16Performing reselection for specific purposes
    • H04W36/22Performing reselection for specific purposes for handling the traffic

Landscapes

  • Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
  • Computer Networks & Wireless Communication (AREA)
  • Signal Processing (AREA)
  • Mobile Radio Communication Systems (AREA)
  • Monitoring And Testing Of Exchanges (AREA)

Abstract

The invention provides a telephone traffic shunting method and a telephone traffic shunting device, wherein the shunting method comprises a traffic acquiring step, a judging step and a processing step; the service quantity acquiring step is as follows: estimating the voice traffic according to the number of users in the coverage area of the base station to obtain the estimated voice traffic in the coverage area of the base station; the judging step is as follows: judging whether the estimated voice service volume in the area covered by the base station is larger than a set value or not; if so, executing the processing step; the processing step comprises a falling sub-step, wherein the falling sub-step is as follows: at least two frequency points are selected from the 2G/3G communication network voice service of the base station, and the voice service in the area covered by the base station is dropped to the selected frequency points. The technical scheme provided by the invention can shunt the voice service when the voice service of the 2G/3G communication network is not congested, and solves the problem of shunt hysteresis of processing after the voice service is congested in the prior art.

Description

Traffic distribution method and device
Technical Field
The invention belongs to the technical field of communication base station control, and particularly relates to a telephone traffic shunting method and device.
Background
Although the 4G communication network (fourth generation communication technology) is currently adopted by users, the data traffic and the voice traffic carried by the 4G communication network are mainly carried by the 2G or 3G communication network. Due to the reasons of wireless environment, the problem of setting service balance parameters between carriers of a 2G/3G communication network, the reason of setting fallback frequency points and fallback priority of a 4G network and the like, after a voice service falls back to the 2G/3G network, the problem of voice service congestion is often generated in the 2G/3G communication network.
In order to solve the problem of voice service congestion generated after a voice service falls back to a 2G/3G communication network, the method adopted in the prior art is as follows: and when the voice service congestion occurs after the voice service falls back to the 2G/3G communication network, the voice service is shunted. However, this method has the following problems:
1. simplification of the implementation mode of the shunting strategy; generally, only starting from a certain aspect, CS congestion occurs, and only a method for solving the congestion is considered; the problem that the service in the system is unbalanced and only the allocation of carrier service resources is considered; the problem that the service volume difference of the base station is large and only the adjustment of a base station system or an RF parameter is considered occurs; however, the implementation of a single method is often low in efficiency and high in cost, and global overall planning cannot be realized, so that analysis and optimization can be performed only for partial problem reasons, and the effect is often very small;
2. the shunting strategy implements network isolation; the current voice service distribution strategy is mainly focused on a voice bearing network after the user of the 4G communication network returns, and basically does not relate to the 4G network, because under the premise of pure IP and no CS domain of an LTE network, a plurality of optimization personnel are often misled or thought to be misled to a branch, and the voice service is considered to be unrelated to the 4G communication network but is often ignored as a major problem, wherein the fact that the voice service is seriously ignored is that as the occupation ratio of the 4G communication network user is greatly increased, the 4G communication network returns, but the voice user on the voice bearing network almost comes from the 4G network; if the problem of voice service distribution is analyzed only from the aspect of network isolation, accurate positioning and associated presentation of the problem cannot be realized;
3. the implementation time hysteresis of the shunting strategy; the problem delay is handled, the problem is often handled after the network is jammed, the problem of voice shunting is handled, advance prevention consciousness is not generated, an effective problem early warning mechanism is not formed, and the problem handling cannot be carried out in advance; secondly, after the implementation opportunity of the diversion strategy is delayed, the diversion strategy in the current stage is generally implemented on a voice bearing network after the voice users of the 4G communication network fall back, the voice users cannot be diverted in advance on the 4G communication network side, which is equal to the problem of unbalanced manufacturing and then solved, and the diversion problem has strong passivity.
Disclosure of Invention
The invention aims to provide a telephone traffic shunting method and a telephone traffic shunting device, which are used for solving the problem of hysteresis in shunting after a voice service is congested in the prior art.
In order to achieve the purpose, the technical scheme provided by the invention is as follows:
a traffic shunting method comprises a traffic acquiring step, a judging step and a processing step;
the service volume obtaining step is as follows: estimating the voice traffic according to the number of users in the coverage area of the base station to obtain the estimated voice traffic in the coverage area of the base station;
the judging step is as follows: judging whether the estimated voice service volume in the area covered by the base station is larger than a set value or not; if so, executing the processing step;
the processing step comprises a drop-back sub-step, wherein the drop-back sub-step is as follows: at least two frequency points are selected from the 2G/3G communication network voice service of the base station, and the voice service in the area covered by the base station is dropped to the selected frequency points.
According to the technical scheme provided by the invention, at least two frequency points are selected from the voice service of the 2G/3G communication network, when the estimated voice service in the coverage area of the base station is greater than a set value, the estimated voice service can fall back to a plurality of frequency points of the 2G/3G communication network, and the voice service can be shunted when the voice service of the 2G/3G communication network is not congested, so that the problem of shunting hysteresis processed after the voice service is congested in the prior art is solved.
As a further improvement to the processing step, the processing step further includes a splitting sub-step, and the splitting sub-step is: when the estimated voice service volume in the coverage area of the base station is judged to be larger than a set value, firstly, judging whether the estimated voice service volume of the base station adjacent to the base station is larger than the corresponding set value;
if so, performing a fall back sub-step;
if not, the voice service of the base station is shunted to the adjacent base station;
the base station adjacent to the base station refers to a base station within a set distance around the base station.
As a further improvement on the number of the frequency points during the fallback, two frequency points are selected in the 2G/3G communication network voice service.
As a further improvement on each frequency point, in the drop-back substep, after a frequency point is selected in the 2G/3G communication network voice service, the priority of each frequency point is defined, and when the voice service in the area covered by the base station drops back to the 2G/3G communication network voice service, the dropped frequency point is selected according to the priority of each frequency point.
A traffic offloading device comprising a processor and a memory, the memory having stored thereon a computer program for execution on the processor; when the processor executes the computer program, implementing a traffic acquisition step, a judgment step and a processing step;
the service volume obtaining step is as follows: estimating the voice traffic according to the number of users in the coverage area of the base station to obtain the estimated voice traffic in the coverage area of the base station;
the judging step is as follows: judging whether the estimated voice service volume in the area covered by the base station is larger than a set value or not; if so, executing the processing step;
the processing step comprises a drop-back sub-step, wherein the drop-back sub-step is as follows: at least two frequency points are selected from the 2G/3G communication network voice service of the base station, and the voice service in the area covered by the base station is dropped to the selected frequency points.
As a further improvement to the processing step, the processing step further includes a splitting sub-step, and the splitting sub-step is: when the estimated voice service volume in the coverage area of the base station is judged to be larger than a set value, firstly, judging whether the estimated voice service volume of the base station adjacent to the base station is larger than the corresponding set value;
if so, performing a fall back sub-step;
if not, the voice service of the base station is shunted to the adjacent base station;
the base station adjacent to the base station refers to a base station within a set distance around the base station.
In the falling sub-step, two frequency points are selected in the 2G/3G communication network voice service.
As a further improvement on each frequency point, in the drop-back substep, after a frequency point is selected in the 2G/3G communication network voice service, the priority of each frequency point is defined, and when the voice service in the area covered by the base station drops back to the 2G/3G communication network voice service, the dropped frequency point is selected according to the priority of each frequency point.
Drawings
Fig. 1 is a flow chart of a traffic splitting method in a method embodiment;
fig. 2 is a diagram illustrating an effect of the traffic splitting method in the method embodiment.
Detailed Description
The invention aims to provide a telephone traffic shunting method and a telephone traffic shunting device, which are used for solving the problem of hysteresis in shunting after a voice service is congested in the prior art.
In order to achieve the purpose, the technical scheme provided by the invention is as follows:
a traffic shunting method comprises a traffic acquiring step, a judging step and a processing step;
the service volume obtaining step is as follows: estimating the voice traffic according to the number of users in the coverage area of the base station to obtain the estimated voice traffic in the coverage area of the base station;
the judging step is as follows: judging whether the estimated voice service volume in the area covered by the base station is larger than a set value or not; if so, executing the processing step;
the processing step comprises a drop-back sub-step, wherein the drop-back sub-step is as follows: at least two frequency points are selected from the 2G/3G communication network voice service of the base station, and the voice service in the area covered by the base station is dropped to the selected frequency points.
The technical solution of the present invention will be further explained with reference to the specific embodiments.
The method comprises the following steps:
the embodiment provides a traffic shunting method, which drops a voice service back to multiple frequency points of a 2G/3G voice service when the voice service volume covered by a base station is too large, so as to solve the problem of hysteresis existing in the prior art when shunting is performed after the voice service is congested.
A traffic offloading method provided in this embodiment has a specific flow as shown in fig. 1, and includes a traffic volume obtaining step, a determining step, and a processing step;
a traffic acquiring step: estimating the voice service volume in the coverage area of the base station to obtain the estimated voice service volume in the coverage area of the base station;
a judging step: judging whether the estimated voice service volume in the area covered by the base station is larger than a set value or not; if so, executing the processing steps of:
the set value is related to the maximum capacity of the voice service of the existing voice service carrying network of the base station and can be obtained according to the resource allocation proportion occupied by the voice service and the data service of the voice service carrying network;
the processing step comprises a falling sub-step, wherein the falling sub-step is as follows: at least two frequency points are selected in the 3G communication network of the base station, and the voice service in the area covered by the base station is dropped to the frequency points selected in the 3G communication network.
The method for the voice service in the coverage area of the base station to fall back to the frequency point selected in the 3G communication network belongs to the prior art, and is not described herein.
The above steps are the basic technical scheme for solving the problem of delay when the voice service is congested and shunted. As a further improvement to this technical solution, a sub-step of shunting may be added to the above-mentioned processing step;
the sub-step of shunting is as follows: when the estimated voice service volume in the coverage area of the base station is judged to be larger than a set value, firstly, judging whether the estimated voice service volume of the base station adjacent to the base station is larger than the corresponding set value;
if so, performing a fall back sub-step;
if not, shunting the voice service in the area covered by the base station to the adjacent base station;
the base station adjacent to the base station is a base station within a set distance around the base station.
And in the falling sub-step, two frequency points are selected in the 3G communication network, the priority of each frequency point is defined, when the voice service in the area covered by the base station falls back to the 3G communication network, the frequency point with higher priority is fallen back firstly, and when the frequency point with higher priority is fully loaded, the frequency point with lower priority is fallen back.
In the drop-back substep of this embodiment, the voice service is dropped back to the 3G communication network; as another embodiment, voice traffic may be dropped back to the 2G communication network.
The following describes a traffic distribution method provided in this embodiment, taking an area where a 4G communication network has a high traffic volume, a large user volume, a high voice service requirement, and a single voice bearer network cannot meet the voice service requirement as an example:
(1) acquiring 4G user quantity in the coverage area of the base station, and further estimating the voice service quantity in the coverage area of the base station to obtain the estimated voice service quantity in the coverage area of the base station;
(2) judging whether the estimated voice service volume in the area covered by the base station is larger than a set value or not;
when the estimated voice service volume in the coverage area of the base station is larger than a set value, judging whether the estimated voice service volume in the coverage area of the base station adjacent to the base station is larger than the corresponding set value;
if the estimated voice traffic is not greater than the set value, the system side parameters such as access and switching and the RF parameters are adjusted for the low traffic sites close to the periphery, and the voice traffic in the coverage area of the base station is distributed to the base station of which the estimated voice traffic in the coverage area is not greater than the set value, so as to share the traffic;
if yes, the voice traffic in the coverage area of the adjacent base station of the base station is saturated or no station meeting the requirement exists, and the step (3) is executed;
(3) carrying out voice bearing network capacity expansion on related sites, and carrying out service equalization among carriers; carrying out carrier expansion with the sector and simultaneously implementing an inter-carrier voice service equalization strategy, if the requirements are met, the following steps are not needed;
(4) adjusting a CSFB fallback strategy; adding a different-system measurement switching frequency point aiming at a same-coverage 4G communication network cell of a 2/3G communication network cell needing voice service distribution, and starting UTRAN frequency point layered measurement, for example, starting measurement on a CPICH signal frequency point 10688 of a 3G communication network in a 4G communication network background; setting the voice service hierarchical priority of the inter-system measurement switching frequency point > the voice service hierarchical priority of the blind redirection fallback frequency point, for example, setting the 10663 priority to 5,10688 priority to 6, and setting the priority value in consideration of the priority values of other frequency points;
configuring real adjacent cells of the inter-system measurement switching frequency points, closing the blind switching switches of the corresponding cells, and setting the blind switching priority of the real adjacent cells of the inter-system measurement switching frequency points to be 0;
adjusting the CSFB to fall back to the B1 threshold of Utran, and realizing that under different coverage conditions, the setting adjustment of the CSFB service active shunting B1 threshold determines the user proportion of switching and blind redirection to the voice bearing network;
(5) carrying out a strategy implementation effect cycle verification test; and comprehensively considering other factors to determine the voice service distribution proportion, and circularly adjusting all threshold values of the relevant cells of the voice distribution strategy until a satisfactory effect is obtained.

Claims (6)

1. A traffic shunting method is characterized by comprising a traffic acquisition step, a judgment step and a processing step;
the service volume obtaining step is as follows: estimating the voice traffic according to the number of users in the coverage area of the base station to obtain the estimated voice traffic in the coverage area of the base station;
the judging step is as follows: judging whether the estimated voice service volume in the area covered by the base station is larger than a set value or not; if so, executing the processing step;
the processing step comprises a drop-back sub-step, wherein the drop-back sub-step is as follows: selecting at least two frequency points from the 2G/3G communication network voice service of the base station, and dropping the voice service in the coverage area of the base station to the selected frequency points;
in the falling sub-step, after the frequency point is selected in the 2G/3G communication network voice service, the priority of each frequency point is defined, and when the voice service in the area covered by the base station falls back to the 2G/3G communication network voice service, the falling frequency point is selected according to the priority of each frequency point.
2. A traffic offload method according to claim 1, wherein the processing step further comprises an offload sub-step, and the offload sub-step is: when the estimated voice service volume in the coverage area of the base station is judged to be larger than a set value, firstly, judging whether the estimated voice service volume of the base station adjacent to the base station is larger than the corresponding set value;
if so, performing a fall back sub-step;
if not, the voice service of the base station is shunted to the adjacent base station;
the base station adjacent to the base station refers to a base station within a set distance around the base station.
3. The traffic offload method according to claim 1, wherein in the drop-back substep, two frequency points are selected in the 2G/3G communication network voice service.
4. A traffic offloading device comprising a processor and a memory, the memory having stored thereon a computer program for execution on the processor; wherein when the processor executes the computer program, the steps of acquiring traffic, determining and processing are carried out;
the service volume obtaining step is as follows: estimating the voice traffic according to the number of users in the coverage area of the base station to obtain the estimated voice traffic in the coverage area of the base station;
the judging step is as follows: judging whether the estimated voice service volume in the area covered by the base station is larger than a set value or not; if so, executing the processing step;
the processing step comprises a drop-back sub-step, wherein the drop-back sub-step is as follows: selecting at least two frequency points from the 2G/3G communication network voice service of the base station, and dropping the voice service in the coverage area of the base station to the selected frequency points;
in the falling sub-step, after the frequency point is selected in the 2G/3G communication network voice service, the priority of each frequency point is defined, and when the voice service in the area covered by the base station falls back to the 2G/3G communication network voice service, the falling frequency point is selected according to the priority of each frequency point.
5. The traffic splitting device of claim 4, wherein the processing step further comprises a splitting sub-step, and the splitting sub-step is: when the estimated voice service volume in the coverage area of the base station is judged to be larger than a set value, firstly, judging whether the estimated voice service volume of the base station adjacent to the base station is larger than the corresponding set value;
if so, performing a fall back sub-step;
if not, the voice service of the base station is shunted to the adjacent base station;
the base station adjacent to the base station refers to a base station within a set distance around the base station.
6. The traffic offload device according to claim 4, wherein in the drop-back substep, two frequency points are selected in the 2G/3G voice service.
CN201810770892.1A 2018-07-13 2018-07-13 Traffic distribution method and device Active CN108966289B (en)

Priority Applications (1)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
CN201810770892.1A CN108966289B (en) 2018-07-13 2018-07-13 Traffic distribution method and device

Applications Claiming Priority (1)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
CN201810770892.1A CN108966289B (en) 2018-07-13 2018-07-13 Traffic distribution method and device

Publications (2)

Publication Number Publication Date
CN108966289A CN108966289A (en) 2018-12-07
CN108966289B true CN108966289B (en) 2022-04-12

Family

ID=64484158

Family Applications (1)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
CN201810770892.1A Active CN108966289B (en) 2018-07-13 2018-07-13 Traffic distribution method and device

Country Status (1)

Country Link
CN (1) CN108966289B (en)

Families Citing this family (1)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
CN115484645B (en) * 2021-05-31 2024-07-05 中国移动通信集团重庆有限公司 Method, device, equipment and computer storage medium for determining voice fallback frequency point

Citations (3)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
WO2010105222A1 (en) * 2009-03-13 2010-09-16 Qualcomm Incorporated Resource reselection in case of failure of a first resource reselection
WO2014206362A1 (en) * 2013-06-29 2014-12-31 华为终端有限公司 Method and device for returning to home network
WO2018045810A1 (en) * 2016-09-08 2018-03-15 广东欧珀移动通信有限公司 Csfb-based calling method and device

Family Cites Families (9)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
WO2015050406A1 (en) * 2013-10-03 2015-04-09 Lg Electronics Inc. Method and apparatus for transmitting indication for d2d operation in wireless communication system
US20150208285A1 (en) * 2014-01-17 2015-07-23 Mediatek Inc. Apparatus and method for circuit switched fallback
CN106982422B (en) * 2016-01-19 2020-01-17 中国移动通信集团重庆有限公司 Method and device for acquiring 2G/3G location area information in circuit switched fallback
CN107018510B (en) * 2016-01-27 2020-04-24 中国移动通信集团内蒙古有限公司 Fallback frequency point configuration method and device
WO2017166124A1 (en) * 2016-03-30 2017-10-05 华为技术有限公司 Method for processing voice service and terminal device
CN108243464B (en) * 2016-12-27 2021-03-23 中国移动通信集团浙江有限公司 VoLTE service shunting processing method and device
CN108271186A (en) * 2017-01-04 2018-07-10 中兴通讯股份有限公司 A kind of CSFB modes method of adjustment and device
WO2019061496A1 (en) * 2017-09-30 2019-04-04 深圳市云中飞网络科技有限公司 Csfb fallback result detection method and apparatus, and computer storage medium
CN107959974B (en) * 2017-12-13 2021-05-18 北京小米移动软件有限公司 Communication processing method, terminal and storage medium

Patent Citations (3)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
WO2010105222A1 (en) * 2009-03-13 2010-09-16 Qualcomm Incorporated Resource reselection in case of failure of a first resource reselection
WO2014206362A1 (en) * 2013-06-29 2014-12-31 华为终端有限公司 Method and device for returning to home network
WO2018045810A1 (en) * 2016-09-08 2018-03-15 广东欧珀移动通信有限公司 Csfb-based calling method and device

Non-Patent Citations (1)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Title
"TD-LTE网络CSFB精准回落研究";范勇;《移动通信》;20150130;全文 *

Also Published As

Publication number Publication date
CN108966289A (en) 2018-12-07

Similar Documents

Publication Publication Date Title
CN109121155B (en) Method and device for determining coverage capability of communication system
CN101572919B (en) Method for carrying out switching strategy selection for user equipment (UE) in LTE system
US20170238316A1 (en) Configuration of a set of carriers in a carrier aggregation operation of a wireless communication system
CN103313324B (en) The object cell selection method of LTE system and eNB
CN107548086B (en) Root cause positioning method and device
CN109982352B (en) Pilot frequency switching method and device in TDD-LTE network
WO2013112082A1 (en) A network node, a low power radio base station and methods therein for controlling resource distribution
WO2016011752A1 (en) Load balancing method and device
CN105393622B (en) The dispatching method and equipment of user equipment
CN104469861B (en) Cell selection method, device and terminal
CN101965012B (en) Load balancing method and device
CN108541022B (en) Method and device for realizing network load balance
CN107920371A (en) A kind of Target cell choosing method and base station
CN106233764B (en) information processing method and device
CN106612514A (en) A measurement scheduling method, apparatus and terminal
CN109391952A (en) Method, apparatus, electronic equipment and the storage medium of measuring configuration
CN108834177A (en) Load-balancing method, device, computer equipment and storage medium
CN108966289B (en) Traffic distribution method and device
CN110831052B (en) Load balancing method and device based on periodic measurement report
CN112492658B (en) User balancing method, device, storage medium and device
EP2813108B1 (en) Measurement termination of higher-prioritized layers for priority-based cell reselection algorithms in cellular communication systems
CN110381547A (en) A kind of configuration method of cell reselection, terminal and the network equipment
CN112235821A (en) Pilot frequency signal intensity prediction method based on AI model
CN102932813B (en) Method and device for adjusting cell individual offset (CIO) parameters
US20170054465A1 (en) Wireless communication network management

Legal Events

Date Code Title Description
PB01 Publication
PB01 Publication
SE01 Entry into force of request for substantive examination
SE01 Entry into force of request for substantive examination
GR01 Patent grant
GR01 Patent grant