CN110719608B

CN110719608B - Load balancing method and first base station

Info

Publication number: CN110719608B
Application number: CN201810756036.0A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 张婷; 褚丹丹; 任东坡
Original assignee: Datang Mobile Communications Equipment Co Ltd
Current assignee: Datang Mobile Communications Equipment Co Ltd
Priority date: 2018-07-11
Filing date: 2018-07-11
Publication date: 2021-04-16
Anticipated expiration: 2038-07-11
Also published as: CN110719608A

Abstract

The embodiment of the invention relates to the technical field of communication, in particular to a load balancing method and a first base station, which are used for solving the problems that a user cannot obtain resource scheduling in a cell with high CCE utilization rate and a load state which cannot reach the load balancing condition in the prior art. The first base station determines the load state of the first cell according to the utilization rate of a Control Channel Element (CCE) of the first cell; the first cell is a cell in the first base station; if the first base station determines that the first cell is in a high load state when the balancing period arrives, determining a second cell which can receive a user to be balanced of the first cell from the adjacent cells of the first cell; and the first base station balances the users to be balanced in the first cell to the second cell. Therefore, even if the load state of the first cell does not meet the load balancing condition in the prior art, the user to be balanced in the first cell can be balanced to the second cell when the CCE utilization rate is high, and the service quality of the user in the first cell can be improved.

Description

Load balancing method and first base station

Technical Field

The embodiment of the invention relates to the technical field of communication, in particular to a load balancing method and a first base station.

Background

When the load among Long Term Evolution (LTE) cells is unbalanced, users in the edge region of a high-load cell can be balanced to a low-load neighboring cell by adjusting the handover parameters, so that the load balance among the cells is realized, and the network capacity is maintained at a high level.

The existing LTE load balancing scheme mainly evaluates the load state of a cell based on the utilization rate of Physical Resource Blocks (PRBs) or the number of connected users, and then balances the users of the cell in a high load state to the cell in a normal state to achieve load balancing.

When the user service of the cell in the base station is a low-rate service, the PRB utilization rate of the cell is very low, and the load balancing condition corresponding to the existing PRB utilization rate cannot be achieved, and if the CCE occupancy rate is very high, the load balancing cannot be triggered by adopting the existing LTE load balancing scheme. The cell with the high CCE occupancy rate and the load balancing condition that cannot be achieved in the prior art may cause a situation that many users in the cell cannot obtain resource scheduling, thereby affecting service processing of the users that cannot obtain resource scheduling in the cell.

Disclosure of Invention

The embodiment of the invention provides a load balancing method and a first base station, which are used for solving the problem that a user in a cell cannot obtain resource scheduling due to high CCE utilization rate in the cell in which the CCE utilization rate is high and the load state cannot reach the load balancing condition in the prior art.

In a first aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a load balancing method, where a first base station determines a load state of a first cell according to a utilization rate of a Control Channel Element (CCE) of the first cell, where the first cell is a cell in a first base station; if the first base station determines that the first cell is in a high load state when the balancing period arrives, determining a second cell which can receive a user to be balanced of the first cell from the adjacent cells of the first cell; and the first base station balances the users to be balanced in the first cell to the second cell.

According to the scheme of the embodiment of the invention, the first base station determines the load state of the first cell according to the CCE utilization rate of the first cell, and if the CCE utilization rate of the first cell is high and the high load state is determined to be reached, the second cell which can receive the user to be balanced of the first cell is determined from the adjacent cells of the first cell. Therefore, even if the load state of the first cell does not meet the load balancing condition in the prior art, the user to be balanced in the first cell can be balanced to the second cell when the CCE utilization rate is high, so that the service quality of the user in the first cell can be improved, and the problem of unbalanced scheduling resource utilization can be relieved.

Optionally, the determining, by the first base station, that the first cell is in a high load state when the balancing period arrives includes: if the first base station determines that the duration of the first cell meeting the first preset condition is greater than or equal to a time threshold when the balance period arrives, determining that the first cell is in a high-load state when the balance period arrives; the value of the duration time when the first cell does not satisfy the first preset condition is zero; the first preset condition includes: the CCE utilization rate of the first cell for uplink scheduling of the physical downlink control channel PDCCH is greater than or equal to a first threshold value, or the CCE utilization rate of the first cell for downlink scheduling of the PDCCH is greater than or equal to a second threshold value. Therefore, the situation that the cells are frequently switched when the first cell is in a high-load state and sometimes in a normal state can be avoided, the switching is not favorable for the continuity of user service processing of the first cell, and a large amount of network resources are consumed.

Optionally, the determining, by the first base station, a second cell that can receive a user to be equalized in the first cell from neighboring cells of the first cell, includes: the first base station acquires the CCE utilization rate of the adjacent cell of the first cell; and the first base station determines an adjacent cell meeting a second preset condition from the adjacent cells of the first cell, and the adjacent cell is used as a second cell which can receive the user to be equalized of the first cell. Wherein the second preset condition comprises: and the difference value between the CCE utilization rate of the first cell and the CCE utilization rate of the adjacent cell is larger than a third preset threshold value, and the CCE utilization rate of the adjacent cell is smaller than a fourth threshold value. In this way, when the second cell is determined, the CCE utilization rates of the first cell and the second cell are considered, so that it is possible to avoid a high load state due to the second cell receiving the user to be balanced.

Optionally, the number of users to be equalized in the first cell is determined according to the CCE utilization rate of the first cell, the total number of users in the first cell, and the CCE utilization rate of the second cell. Therefore, the total number of users in the first cell and the CCE utilization rate of the first cell and the second cell are considered when the number of the users to be balanced is determined, and the users in the first cell and the second cell can be reasonably balanced.

Optionally, the neighboring cell of the first cell includes a cell of the second base station; before the first base station determines a second cell which can receive the user to be equalized from the neighbor cells of the first cell, the method further comprises the following steps: the first base station sends a first resource state request message to the second base station; the first resource state request message is used for acquiring the CCE utilization rate of each cell of the second base station; the first base station periodically receives a resource state updating message sent by the second base station; the resource state updating message comprises CCE utilization rates of all cells in the second base station; the resource state updating message is used for the first base station to determine a second cell which can receive the user to be equalized of the first cell from the adjacent cells of the first cell. Therefore, the signaling interaction times between the two base stations can be reduced, the network overhead can be saved, and the resource consumption can be reduced.

Optionally, after the first base station sends the first resource status request message to the second base station, the method further includes: if the first base station determines that no cell in a high load state exists in the first base station, the first base station sends a second resource state request message to a second base station; the second resource status request message is used to instruct the second base station to stop sending the resource status update message. Therefore, the first base station only needs to send the second resource state request message when all the cells are in the normal state, and does not need to send the second resource state request message when each cell is converted into the normal state, so that the signaling interaction times between the two base stations can be further reduced, the network overhead can be saved, and the resource consumption can be reduced.

In a second aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a first base station, which includes a determining unit and a processing unit. Wherein:

the determining unit is used for determining the load state of the first cell according to the utilization rate of a Control Channel Element (CCE) of the first cell; if the first cell is determined to be in a high load state when the balancing period is reached, determining a second cell which can receive a user to be balanced of the first cell from the adjacent cells of the first cell; the first cell is a cell in the first base station;

and the processing unit is used for balancing the users to be balanced in the first cell to the second cell.

Optionally, the determining unit is configured to: if the duration that the first cell meets the first preset condition is determined to be greater than or equal to the time threshold when the balance period arrives, determining that the first cell is in a high-load state when the balance period arrives; the value of the duration time when the first cell does not satisfy the first preset condition is zero; the first preset condition includes: the CCE utilization rate of the first cell for uplink scheduling of the physical downlink control channel PDCCH is greater than or equal to a first threshold value, or the CCE utilization rate of the first cell for downlink scheduling of the PDCCH is greater than or equal to a second threshold value.

Optionally, the apparatus further includes an obtaining unit, configured to: acquiring the CCE utilization rate of the adjacent cell of the first cell; a determining unit, configured to determine, from neighboring cells of the first cell, a neighboring cell that meets a second preset condition as a second cell that can receive a user to be balanced in the first cell; the second preset condition includes: and the difference value between the CCE utilization rate of the first cell and the CCE utilization rate of the adjacent cell is larger than a third preset threshold value, and the CCE utilization rate of the adjacent cell is smaller than a fourth threshold value.

Optionally, the number of users to be equalized in the first cell is determined according to the CCE utilization rate of the first cell, the total number of users in the first cell, and the CCE utilization rate of the second cell.

Optionally, the neighboring cell of the first cell is a cell of the second base station; the first base station further comprises a transceiver unit; a receiving and sending unit, configured to send a first resource status request message to a second base station; periodically receiving a resource state updating message sent by a second base station; the first resource state request message is used for acquiring the CCE utilization rate of each cell of the second base station; the resource state updating message comprises CCE utilization rates of all cells in the second base station; the resource state updating message is used for the first base station to determine a second cell which can receive the user to be equalized of the first cell from the adjacent cells of the first cell.

Optionally, the transceiver unit is further configured to: if the first base station is determined not to have the cell in the high load state, sending a second resource state request message to a second base station; the second resource status request message is used to instruct the second base station to stop sending the resource status update message.

In a third aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a network device, including:

a memory for storing program instructions;

and the processor is used for calling the program instructions stored in the memory and executing the method of any optional embodiment of the first aspect and the first aspect according to the obtained program.

In a fourth aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a computer-readable storage medium, where computer-executable instructions are stored, and the computer-executable instructions are configured to cause a computer to perform the method according to any one of the first aspect and the optional embodiment of the first aspect.

Drawings

In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention, the drawings that are required to be used in the description of the embodiments will be briefly described below.

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating one example of a scenario in which an embodiment of the present invention is applicable;

FIG. 2 is a second exemplary scenario for implementing the present invention;

fig. 3 is a schematic flow chart of a load balancing method according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a method for determining a cell load status according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a method for resource interaction between base stations according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 6 is a schematic structural diagram of a first base station according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 7 is a schematic structural diagram of a network device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed Description

In order to make the objects, technical solutions and advantages of the present invention more clearly apparent, the present invention is described in further detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings and embodiments. It should be understood that the specific embodiments described herein are merely illustrative of the invention and are not intended to limit the invention.

It is to be understood that the terms "first," "second," and the like in the following description are used for descriptive purposes only and are not to be construed as indicating or implying relative importance, nor order.

In the embodiment of the present invention, if the first cell of the first base station needs load balancing, the first base station may balance the user to be balanced in the first cell to a neighboring cell of the first cell that can receive the user to be balanced, where the neighboring cell of the first cell may be a cell in the first base station or a cell in the second base station. The adjacent cell of the first cell is a cell having the same coverage relation with the first cell, and the same coverage relation comprises the complete same coverage relation, namely the coverage ranges of the first cell and the adjacent cell are completely overlapped; and also includes a partial same-coverage relationship, i.e. the coverage area of the first cell and the neighboring cell partially overlap.

Fig. 1 illustrates one of the scenarios in which the embodiment of the present invention is applicable.

As shown in fig. 1, the base station 110 includes two cells, i.e., a cell 1a and a cell 1b, which have the same coverage relationship. The cell 1a includes a terminal 111, a terminal 112, and a terminal 113, and the cell 1b includes a terminal 114.

In the embodiment of the present application, the load states of the cell 1a and the cell 1b are determined according to the CCE utilization rates of the cell 1a and the cell 1b, and if the cell 1a is in a high load state and the cell 1b is in a normal state, a user to be balanced may be determined from the terminal 111, the terminal 112, and the terminal 113 in the cell 1a, for example, in fig. 1, the terminal 113 is in the edge area of the cell 1a and in the coverage area of the cell 1b, and the terminal 113 may be balanced to the cell 1 b.

Fig. 2 illustrates a second exemplary scenario in which the embodiment of the present invention is applicable.

As shown in fig. 2, the base station 110 includes two cells, i.e., a cell 1a and a cell 1b, which have the same coverage relationship. Base station 120 includes cell 2a, where cell 1a includes terminal 111, terminal 112, and terminal 113, and cell 1b includes terminal 114. Cell 2a includes terminal 121. Wherein, the cell 1a and the cell 2a have the same coverage relation.

If the cell 1a is in a high load state and the cell 2a is in a normal state, the cell 1a may determine the user to be balanced from the terminal 111, the terminal 112, and the terminal 113 in the cell 1a, for example, in fig. 2, the terminal 112 is in an edge area of the cell 1a and in a coverage area of the cell 2b, and may balance the terminal 112 to the cell 2 b.

Any one of the

terminals

111, 112, 113, 114, and 121 may communicate with one or more core networks through a Radio Access Network (RAN), and a terminal may refer to a User Equipment (UE), an Access terminal, a subscriber unit, a subscriber station, a mobile station, a remote terminal, a mobile device, a wireless communication device, a User agent, or a User Equipment. An access terminal may be a cellular phone, a cordless phone, a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) phone, a Wireless Local Loop (WLL) station, a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), a handheld device with Wireless communication capability, a computing device, or other processing device connected to a Wireless modem, a vehicle-mounted device, a wearable device, etc.

The following describes the load balancing method provided by the embodiment of the present invention in detail.

Fig. 3 exemplarily shows a flow chart of the load balancing method provided by the embodiment of the present invention. As shown in fig. 3, the method comprises the steps of:

step 301: the first base station determines the load state of the first cell according to the utilization rate of a Control Channel Element (CCE) of the first cell; the first cell is a cell in the first base station.

In step 301, the CCE utilization rate is a ratio of CCEs already used in the system resource to the total CCE amount. The first base station may include a plurality of cells, and taking the first base station as the base station 110 shown in fig. 1 as an example, the base station 110 includes a cell 1a and a cell 1b, and the CCE utilization rate of the cell 1a and the CCE utilization rate of the cell 1b are stored in the base station 110. If the first base station needs to acquire the CCE utilization of the cell under the first base station, the CCE utilization may be acquired by querying a storage area of the first base station. If the first base station needs to acquire the CCE utilization rate of the cell under the second base station, the first base station needs to send a request for acquisition to the second base station.

In the embodiment of the present application, the load state includes a high load state and a normal state.

Step 302: and if the first base station determines that the first cell is in a high load state when the balancing period arrives, determining a second cell which can receive the user to be balanced of the first cell from the adjacent cells of the first cell.

In step 302, the neighboring cells of the first cell are cells having the same coverage relationship with the first cell, and the same coverage relationship includes a complete same coverage relationship and a partial same coverage relationship. Wherein, completely same coverage means that the coverage areas of two cells are completely overlapped; partially overlapping means that the coverage areas of the two cells partially overlap.

Optionally, the neighboring cell of the first cell may be a cell in the first base station, or may be a cell in the second base station.

Optionally, the equalization period may be configured according to the actual network environment requirement, and the specific equalization period length is not limited here. For example, the load state of the first cell in a period of time is counted, and if the time of the high load state is long, the length of the balancing period is configurable to be shorter; if the time in the normal state is long, the length of the equalization period is configurable to be a little longer.

Step 303: and the first base station balances the users to be balanced in the first cell to the second cell.

In the embodiment of the present application, the specific implementation of step 303 is as follows: and determining how to perform the switching according to the same-coverage relation between the first cell and the second cell. If the first cell and the second cell are completely in the same coverage relation, directly performing blind handover processing; if the first cell and the second cell are in a partially same-coverage relationship, since the signal strength of the user to be equalized in the second cell cannot be determined before handover under the condition that the two cells are partially covered, before handover, a4 measurement is configured, the user is waited to report an a4 measurement result, that is, the signal measurement value of the second cell is higher than the threshold value to trigger an a4 event, and then handover is performed. The specific process of blind handover and the handover process after reporting the measurement result of a4 are the prior art and are not described herein again.

In step 302, the first base station determines that the first cell is in a high load state when the balancing period arrives, and there are various optional implementation manners, which are provided as follows.

In the method a, when the first base station arrives at the balancing period, if it is determined that the first cell meets the first preset condition, it is determined that the first cell is in a high-load state when the balancing period arrives. Wherein, the first preset condition comprises: the CCE utilization rate of the first cell for uplink scheduling of the physical downlink control channel PDCCH is greater than or equal to a first threshold value, or the CCE utilization rate of the first cell for downlink scheduling of the PDCCH is greater than or equal to a second threshold value. The first threshold value and the second threshold value may be the same or different, and the specific values may be configured by an operator.

Correspondingly, when the first base station arrives at the equalization period, if it is determined that the first cell does not satisfy the first preset condition, that is, the CCE utilization rate of the first cell for the uplink scheduling PDCCH is smaller than the first threshold, and the CCE utilization rate of the first cell for the downlink scheduling PDCCH is smaller than the second threshold, the first cell is in a normal state when the equalization period arrives.

In the embodiment of the present application, when it is determined that the load state of the first cell when the balancing cycle arrives is in the high load state, the balancing operation needs to be performed according to the balancing direction, so that the balancing direction of the first cell needs to be determined first. Specifically, the following cases are included.

In the first case, if the CCE utilization rate of the first cell for the uplink scheduling PDCCH is greater than or equal to the first threshold and the CCE utilization rate of the first cell for the downlink scheduling PDCCH is less than the second threshold, the equalization direction of the first cell is the uplink direction.

In the second case, if the CCE utilization rate of the first cell for downlink scheduling of the PDCCH is greater than or equal to the second threshold and the CCE utilization rate of the first cell for uplink scheduling of the PDCCH is less than the first threshold, the equalizing direction of the first cell is the downlink direction.

And under the third condition, if the CCE utilization rate of the first cell for the uplink scheduling PDCCH is greater than or equal to the first threshold value and the CCE utilization rate of the first cell for the downlink scheduling PDCCH is greater than or equal to the second threshold value, selecting a larger value from the CCE utilization rate of the uplink scheduling PDCCH and the CCE utilization rate of the downlink scheduling PDCCH, and taking the scheduling direction corresponding to the larger value as the equilibrium direction.

The method for determining the equalization direction in the three cases is applicable to the mode A and also applicable to the mode B. After the equalization direction is determined according to the three situations, taking the equalization direction of the first cell as an uplink direction as an example, the user to be equalized in the first cell is selected from users needing uplink scheduling in the first cell, and a second cell needs to be selected according to the CCE utilization rate of the neighboring cell of the first cell for uplink scheduling PDCCH.

In the mode B, if the first base station determines that the duration of the first cell meeting the first preset condition is greater than or equal to the time threshold when the balance period arrives, the first base station determines that the first cell is in a high-load state when the balance period arrives; setting the value of the duration to zero when the first cell does not satisfy the first preset condition. Correspondingly, if it is determined that the duration of the first cell meeting the first preset condition is less than the time threshold when the equalization period arrives, it is determined that the first cell is in a normal state when the equalization period arrives.

In the embodiment of the present application, there are various ways of determining the duration in the above-described manner B. Optionally, the first base station may set a timer to record the time when the first cell meets the first preset condition, or set a counter corresponding to the first cell at the first base station, where the counter is configured to record the number of consecutive cycles that the first cell meets the first preset condition in a count cycle, and clear the count when the first cell does not meet the first preset condition.

Illustratively, the counting period of the counter is generally 1 second, that is, it is determined whether the first cell meets the first preset condition at the end of each second, and if so, the value of the counter is increased by 1; and if not, clearing the value of the counter. If the first base station determines that the value of the counter is larger than or equal to the threshold of the preset times when the balance period is reached, determining that the first cell is in a high-load state when the balance period is reached; and if the value of the counter is smaller than the preset time threshold when the equalization period is reached, determining that the first cell is in a normal state when the equalization period is reached. The preset time threshold may be set according to a network environment, and is not limited herein.

In order to more clearly introduce the difference between the above-described mode a and mode B, the following example is given.

Example a1, assuming an equalization period of 10s, after the equalization period starts, 1-3 s of first cells satisfy the first preset condition, 4-6 s of first cells do not satisfy the first preset condition, 7-9 s do not satisfy the first preset condition, and 10s satisfy the first preset condition. The following is described differently for the two implementations described above:

if mode a is used, then it is determined at the end of the balancing period that the first cell is in a high load state. In this case, the first base station may load balance the first cell.

If the method B is adopted, the counting period of the counter is 1s, and the preset time threshold is assumed to be 3. Since the value of the counter is 1, less than 3, it is determined that the first cell is in a normal state at the end of the equalization period. In this case, the first base station does not load balance the first cell.

Example a2, assuming an equalization period of 10s, after the equalization period starts, 1-3 s of first cells satisfy the first preset condition, 4-6 s of first cells do not satisfy the first preset condition, and 7-10 s satisfy the first preset condition. If the method a is adopted, the first base station performs load balancing on the first cell because the first preset condition is met at the end of 10 s.

If the method B is adopted, the counting period of the counter is 1s, and the preset number threshold is assumed to be 3, and the value of the counter is 4, which is greater than 3, so that it is determined that the first cell is in a high load state at the end of the balancing period, and the first base station also performs load balancing on the first cell.

Compared with the method a, it is determined whether the first cell is in the high load state according to whether the first cell meets the first preset condition when the balancing period arrives, and particularly, in the case that the balancing period is set to be short, it may often occur that the first cell is determined to be in the high load state when the balancing period ends, and load balancing needs to be performed on users of the first cell, which affects normal processing of user services. In this embodiment, by means of the method B, it is determined whether the first cell is in the high load state or not according to whether the first cell is in the high load state or not when the equalization period reaches and the time lasting for at least the time threshold satisfies the first preset condition, so that it is avoided that the cell is frequently switched when the first cell is in the high load state or sometimes in the normal state, which is unfavorable for the continuity of the user service processing of the first cell, and a large amount of network resources are consumed.

An example of the determination of the load status of the first cell achieved in the above-described manner B is provided below.

Fig. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a method for determining a cell load status according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in fig. 4, the method comprises the steps of:

step 401: the value of a timer maintained by the first cell is monitored and the time of each counting period is periodically recorded.

Step 402: determining whether the timer has timed out; if yes, go to step 403; if not, go to step 401.

Step 403: determining whether the first cell meets a first preset condition; if yes, go to step 404; if not, go to step 405; wherein, the first preset condition comprises: the CCE utilization rate of the first cell for uplink scheduling of the physical downlink control channel PDCCH is greater than or equal to a first threshold value, or the CCE utilization rate of the first cell for downlink scheduling of the PDCCH is greater than or equal to a second threshold value. The first threshold value and the second threshold value may be the same or different, and the specific values may be configured by an operator.

Step 404: the value of the counter is incremented by 1.

Step 405: the value of the counter is cleared.

Step 406: and when each balance period arrives, determining the load state of the first cell according to the value of the counter.

In the foregoing steps 403 to 405, if the timer is overtime, it is determined whether the first cell meets the first preset condition, and specifically, each cell may adopt two counters respectively corresponding to the uplink direction and the downlink direction. It is assumed that the first threshold value of the first cell is denoted as lmclucceptemhreshold and the second threshold value is denoted as lmcdlccceptemhreshold.

And if the CCE utilization rate of the first cell for the uplink scheduling PDCCH is greater than or equal to lmcUlCceThreshold, adding 1 to a counter in the uplink direction, otherwise, resetting the counter in the uplink direction. And if the CCE utilization rate of the first cell for downlink scheduling PDCCH is greater than or equal to lmcDlCceThreshold, adding 1 to a counter in the downlink direction, otherwise, resetting the counter in the downlink direction.

In step 406, when the balancing period is reached, if the counter in the uplink direction is greater than or equal to T, or the counter in the downlink direction is greater than or equal to T, the load state of the first cell is changed to the high load state. Meanwhile, if the adjacent cells with the same coverage relation among the stations exist, the resource state interaction process is triggered. Wherein T is a positive integer, and the specific value can be set according to actual needs.

If the counter in the uplink direction is less than T and the counter in the downlink direction is less than T, the load state of the first cell is changed to a normal state. If the flow of requesting the load state from the adjacent cell between the stations is triggered before, a message needs to be sent to the corresponding adjacent cell to stop the resource state interaction process.

In this embodiment, after determining that the first cell is in the high load state, there are various ways to implement step 302. In an optional implementation manner, the first base station obtains a CCE utilization rate of a neighboring cell of the first cell; and the first base station determines an adjacent cell meeting a second preset condition from the adjacent cells of the first cell, and the adjacent cell is used as a second cell which can receive the user to be equalized of the first cell. Wherein the second preset condition comprises: and the difference value between the CCE utilization rate of the first cell and the CCE utilization rate of the adjacent cell is larger than a third preset threshold value, and the CCE utilization rate of the adjacent cell is smaller than a fourth threshold value. In this way, when the second cell is determined, the CCE utilization rates of the first cell and the second cell are considered, so that it is possible to avoid a high load state due to the second cell receiving the user to be balanced.

In this embodiment, the fourth threshold is a CCE utilization threshold of an acceptable user determined according to a CCE utilization of a neighboring cell, that is, if the CCE utilization of the neighboring cell is greater than the fourth threshold, the neighboring cell cannot accommodate the user of the first cell, and cannot serve as the second cell.

In order to balance the user to be balanced in the first cell to the second cell and further reduce the influence on the service of the user in the second cell, optionally, if the first base station determines a plurality of neighboring cells meeting the second preset condition from the neighboring cells of the first cell, it may determine a neighboring cell with the lowest CCE utilization as the second cell. Or randomly selecting one neighboring cell from several neighboring cells with lower CCE utilization rate among the plurality of neighboring cells satisfying the second preset condition as the second cell.

And if the first base station does not have the adjacent cell meeting the second preset condition, ending the equalization processing of the equalization period and waiting for the next equalization period.

Optionally, in step 303, the number of the users to be equalized in the first cell is determined according to the CCE utilization of the first cell, the total number of users in the first cell, and the CCE utilization of the second cell. Therefore, the total number of users in the first cell and the CCE utilization rate of the first cell and the second cell are considered when the number of the users to be balanced is determined, and the users in the first cell and the second cell can be reasonably balanced.

For example, the number of users to be equalized in the first cell may be the number of equalized users calculated by the following formula, or may be smaller than the number of equalized users. The specific calculation mode of the number of the balanced users is as follows:

in the above equation for calculating the balanced user number, the number of users in the first cell is the total number of users included in the first cell, that is, the total number of users in the first cell having uplink scheduling requirements and users having downlink scheduling requirements is included.

In the embodiment of the application, after the number of the balancing users in the first cell is determined, the users to be balanced are selected from the users in the first cell. If the balancing direction of the first cell is determined to be the uplink direction, determining users to be balanced from users with uplink scheduling requirements in the first cell; and if the balancing direction of the first cell is determined to be the downlink direction, determining users to be balanced from the users with the downlink scheduling requirements of the first cell.

In selecting the user to be equalized, any one or any plurality of the following filtering conditions need to be considered:

condition one, Carrier Aggregation (CA) users are unbalanced as much as possible, so users configured with secondary carriers are filtered out.

And secondly, in order to avoid the influence on some special services (such as voice services) in the equalization process, the system can set a QoS scale value (QCI) for prohibiting equalization, and filter out users carried by the prohibited QCI.

And thirdly, in order to prevent the users in the first cell from balancing to the second cell and switching to other cells immediately, the users who report the A2 measurement are filtered.

And sorting the rest users obtained by filtering any one or more of the three conditions according to the CCE occupancy rate of the users from high to low to generate a user queue. If the number of the users in the generated user queue is smaller than or equal to the number of the balanced users, all the users in the user queue are put into the balanced queue; or, a part of users may be returned to the balanced queue from among the previously filtered users, the selection of the returned users may be randomly selected from among the users filtered under the condition one, the condition two, or the condition three, or the returning priorities may be set for the users under the above three conditions, for example, the order of the priorities from large to small is: and if the priority of the condition three is higher than that of the condition one, and the priority of the condition one is higher than that of the condition two, the fallback user preferentially selects from the users filtered according to the condition three.

And if the generated user queue is larger than the number of the balance users, taking out the users with larger CCE occupancy rate of the users and the number of the users as the number of the balance users from the user queue and putting the users into the balance queue. The users in the equalization queue are then equalized to the second cell.

Based on any of the above embodiments, the load balancing method provided in the embodiments of the present application supports both intra-station balancing and inter-station balancing, and can meet the requirements of various networking environments of the existing network. If the first cell is in a high load state, determining a neighboring cell of the first cell, wherein the neighboring cell may have a cell of the first base station and may also have a cell of the second base station.

If the neighboring cell of the first cell includes a cell of the second base station, before step 302, the load balancing method further includes: the first base station sends a first resource state request message to the second base station, wherein the first resource state request message is used for acquiring CCE utilization rate of each cell of the second base station. The first base station periodically receives a resource state updating message sent by the second base station, the resource state updating message comprises CCE utilization rates of all cells in the second base station, and the resource state updating message is used for the first base station to determine a second cell which can receive a user to be balanced of the first cell from adjacent cells of the first cell.

Optionally, the first base station may trigger the resource state interaction process with the second base station when each cell transitions to the high load state. The resource state interaction process may also be triggered only when a first cell transitioning to a high load state occurs in the first base station, and the first cell transitioning to the high load state is taken as the first cell for example.

For example, before the first base station sends the first resource state request message to the second base station, if the first base station has triggered the resource state interaction process with the second base station, that is, there are other cells in the first base station in the high load state and the resource state interaction process is not stopped, the first base station does not need to send the first resource state request message to the second base station when the first cell is in the high load state. Therefore, the signaling interaction times between the two base stations can be reduced, the network overhead can be saved, and the resource consumption can be reduced.

In an optional implementation manner, after the first base station sends the first resource status request message to the second base station, if the first base station determines that no cell in a high load state exists in the first base station, the first base station sends a second resource status request message to the second base station; the second resource status request message is used to instruct the second base station to stop sending the resource status update message.

Illustratively, when each cell in the first base station transitions to a normal state, it is determined whether there are other cells in the first base station in a high load state, if so, the second resource state request is not sent, and if not, the second resource state request is sent. Therefore, the second base station is not instructed to stop measuring the CCE utilization rate of the cells in the second base station until all the cells in the first base station are in the normal state, and each cell does not need to be converted into the normal state to send the second resource state request message, so that the signaling interaction times between the two base stations are reduced, the network overhead is saved, and the resource consumption can be reduced.

In the first resource state request message and the second resource state request message, a mechanism for evaluating the cell load state according to the occupancy rates of the uplink PDCCH and the downlink PDCCH CCE of the cell is added, and as the protocol does not have the specification about the CCE information interaction between stations at present, the CCE occupancy rates of the adjacent cells between stations need to be acquired through the extended IE in the X2 resource interaction signaling, so that the requirement of load balance between stations can be met.

To describe in more detail the resource interaction process between the first base station and the second base station when the first cell is in the high load state, the following example is given.

Fig. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a method for resource interaction between base stations according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in fig. 5, the method comprises the steps of:

step 501: determining that the load state of the first cell changes according to the CCE utilization rate of the first cell; thereafter, both the case of step 502 and the case of step 505 may be included.

Step 502: the first base station determines that the first cell is changed from a normal state to a high-load state;

exemplarily, when a certain cell in a base station is converted into a high-load state, a neighboring cell having an inter-station same coverage relationship with the cell is queried, if a Resource state interaction process does not exist between a source base station and a base station where the neighboring cell is located, a Resource Status Request message and a Registration Request element (Registration Request information IE) sent to a target base station are set to be "start", and load state information of all cells having a neighboring cell relationship with the neighboring base station is obtained; if the Resource state interaction process exists between the source base station and the adjacent base station, the Resource Status Request message does not need to be sent again. And after receiving RESOURCE STATUS UPDATE, the source base station UPDATEs the neighbor cell load state information stored in all the cells with the high load state.

Step 503: the first base station determines whether the first cell is a cell with a first load state being a high load state in the first base station; if yes, go to step 504; if not, no message is sent, and the process is finished;

step 504: the first base station sends a first resource state request message to the second base station;

step 505: the first base station determines that the first cell is changed from a high-load state to a normal state;

step 506: whether the first base station sends a first resource state request message to the second base station before;

if yes, go to step 507; if not, no message is sent, and the process is finished;

step 507: the first base station determines whether all cells in the first base station are in a normal state; if yes, go to step 508; if not, no message is sent;

exemplarily, in a balancing period, when loads of all cells in the first base station having the same coverage relationship with the second base station return to a normal state, a Resource Status Request message is sent to the target base station, where the Registration Request IE is set to "stop", and the Resource state interaction process is stopped.

Step 508: the first base station sends a second resource status request message to the second base station.

Correspondingly, after receiving the Resource State Request message, the second base station judges that if the Registration Request IE in the Request message is set as 'start', the second base station carries out load measurement according to the requested load type and feeds back the load condition to the first base station through the Resource State Update message; if the Registration Request IE in the Request message is set to "stop", the target base station stops the measurement of the relevant load.

If the target base station supports all types of load measurement requested by the first base station, replying a Resource Status Response message, starting corresponding load measurement and periodically reporting a corresponding measurement result by using the Resource Status Update message according to the period requested by the source side. And if the target base station does not support all load measurements requested by the first base station, replying a Resource Status failure message.

Seven types of load types are specified in the protocol, the target base station reports load information according to the load measurement type carried in the Resource request of the first base station, and if the Bitmap of the corresponding load type in the Report Characteristics IE is '1', the target base station feeds back the corresponding load information in a Resource Status Update message. For example, in this embodiment of the application, the Bitmap of the load type CCE utilization rate set in the Report Characteristics IE sent by the first base station to the second base station is "1", and then the second base station feeds back the CCE utilization rate of each cell in the second base station.

Because a path for performing CCE utilization information interaction on adjacent cells between base stations is not described in the protocol, in the embodiment of the application, two extension fields are newly added in the Radio Resource Status IE to fill the 'CCE utilization for downlink scheduling PDCCH' or fill the 'CCE utilization for uplink scheduling PDCCH'. Illustratively, structure two is shown in the following example. The IE structure asn.1 in the resource status interaction update message includes the following structures one to four, as follows:

the structure I is as follows:

the structure II is as follows:

the structure is three:

id-DL-Based-Scheduling-PDCCH-CCE-usage ProtocolIE-ID::＝64998

id-UL-Based-Scheduling-PDCCH-CCE-usage ProtocolIE-ID::＝64999

the structure is four:

DL-PDCCH-CCE-usage::＝INTEGER(0..100)

UL-PDCCH-CCE-usage::＝INTEGER(0..100)

in the first structure, a radio resource status extension field is added to the existing resources. In structure two, the content of the radio resource status extension field is defined, including the CCE utilization for uplink scheduling PDCCH and the CCE utilization for downlink scheduling PDCCH. In the third structure, a Protocol IE ID (Protocol IE-ID) corresponding to the CCE utilization rate used for the uplink scheduling PDCCH is defined, for example, the Protocol IE-ID is 64999, and a Protocol IE ID corresponding to the CCE utilization rate used for the downlink scheduling PDCCH is defined, for example, the Protocol IE-ID is 64998. In the fourth configuration, the downlink PDCCH CCE utilization rate range is configured to be 0 to 100%, and the uplink PDCCH CCE utilization rate range is configured to be 0 to 100%.

It can be seen from the above example that, in the Resource state interaction process between base stations, the extended IE in the Resource Status update message is used to perform CCE utilization interaction, so that the scheduling of users between cells can be balanced, and the perception of users can be improved.

Based on the foregoing embodiments and the same concept, fig. 6 is a schematic structural diagram of a first base station according to an embodiment of the present invention, where the first base station may implement any one or more steps performed by the first base station in the method shown in fig. 3. As shown in fig. 6, the first base station 600 may include a determining unit 601 and a processing unit 602. Optionally, the apparatus may further include an obtaining unit 603 and a transceiver 604 shown in fig. 5. Wherein:

a determining unit 601, configured to determine a load state of a first cell according to a CCE utilization of the first cell; if the first cell is determined to be in a high load state when the balancing period is reached, determining a second cell which can receive a user to be balanced of the first cell from the adjacent cells of the first cell; the first cell is a cell in the first base station;

a processing unit 602, configured to balance the users to be balanced in the first cell to the second cell.

Optionally, the determining unit 601 is configured to: if the duration that the first cell meets the first preset condition is determined to be greater than the time threshold when the balance period arrives, determining that the first cell is in a high-load state when the balance period arrives; the value of the duration time when the first cell does not satisfy the first preset condition is zero; the first preset condition includes: the CCE utilization rate of the first cell for uplink scheduling of the physical downlink control channel PDCCH is greater than or equal to a first threshold value, or the CCE utilization rate of the first cell for downlink scheduling of the PDCCH is greater than or equal to a second threshold value.

Optionally, the method further includes an obtaining unit 603, configured to obtain a CCE utilization of a neighboring cell of the first cell; the determining unit 601 is configured to determine, from neighboring cells of the first cell, a neighboring cell that meets a second preset condition as a second cell that can receive a user to be balanced in the first cell; the second preset condition includes: and the difference value between the CCE utilization rate of the first cell and the CCE utilization rate of the adjacent cell is larger than a third preset threshold value, and the CCE utilization rate of the adjacent cell is smaller than a fourth threshold value.

Optionally, the number of the users to be equalized in the first cell is determined according to the CCE utilization rate of the first cell, the total number of users in the first cell, and the CCE utilization rate of the second cell.

Optionally, a neighboring cell of the first cell is a cell of a second base station; the first base station further comprises a transceiver unit 604 for: sending a first resource status request message to the second base station; periodically receiving a resource state updating message sent by the second base station; wherein, the first resource status request message is used for acquiring the CCE utilization rate of each cell of the second base station; the resource state updating message comprises CCE utilization rates of all cells in the second base station; the resource status update message is used for the first base station to determine a second cell which can receive the user to be equalized of the first cell from the adjacent cells of the first cell.

Optionally, the transceiver 604 is further configured to: if the first base station is determined not to have the cell in the high load state, sending a second resource state request message to the second base station; the second resource status request message is used to instruct the second base station to stop sending the resource status update message.

For the concepts, explanations, details, other steps, and advantages related to the base station 600 and related to the technical solution provided by the embodiment of the present invention, please refer to the foregoing load balancing method or the descriptions related to these contents in other embodiments, which are not described herein again.

Based on the above embodiments and the same concept, the embodiments of the present invention further provide a network device.

Fig. 7 is a schematic structural diagram of a network device according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in fig. 7, the network device 700 includes:

a memory 701 for storing program instructions;

a processor 702, configured to call the program instructions stored in the memory, and execute the load balancing method in any of the foregoing embodiments according to the obtained program.

Based on the foregoing embodiments and the same concept, embodiments of the present invention further provide a computer storage medium, where computer-executable instructions are stored, and the computer-executable instructions are configured to enable a computer to execute the load balancing method described in any one of the foregoing embodiments.

It should be noted that the division of the unit in the embodiment of the present invention is schematic, and is only a logic function division, and there may be another division manner in actual implementation. Each functional unit in the embodiments of the present invention may be integrated into one processing unit, or each unit may exist alone physically, or two or more units are integrated into one module. The integrated unit can be realized in a form of hardware, and can also be realized in a form of a software functional unit.

As will be appreciated by one skilled in the art, embodiments of the present invention may be provided as a method, system, or computer program product. Accordingly, embodiments of the present invention may take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment or an embodiment combining software and hardware aspects. Furthermore, embodiments of the present invention may take the form of a computer program product embodied on one or more computer-usable storage media (including, but not limited to, disk storage, CD-ROM, optical storage, and the like) having computer-usable program code embodied therein.

Embodiments of the present invention are described with reference to flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus (systems), and computer program products according to embodiments of the invention. It will be understood that each flow and/or block of the flow diagrams and/or block diagrams, and combinations of flows and/or blocks in the flow diagrams and/or block diagrams, can be implemented by computer program instructions. These computer program instructions may be provided to a processor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, embedded processor, or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructions, which execute via the processor of the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus, create means for implementing the functions specified in the flowchart flow or flows and/or block diagram block or blocks.

These computer program instructions may also be stored in a computer-readable memory that can direct a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to function in a particular manner, such that the instructions stored in the computer-readable memory produce an article of manufacture including instruction means which implement the function specified in the flowchart flow or flows and/or block diagram block or blocks.

These computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer or other programmable apparatus to produce a computer implemented process such that the instructions which execute on the computer or other programmable apparatus provide steps for implementing the functions specified in the flowchart flow or flows and/or block diagram block or blocks.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various changes and modifications may be made in the embodiments of the present invention without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Thus, if such modifications and variations of the embodiments of the present invention fall within the scope of the claims of the present invention and their equivalents, the present invention is also intended to encompass such modifications and variations.

Claims

1. A method of load balancing, comprising:

the method comprises the steps that a first base station determines the load state of a first cell according to the utilization rate of a Control Channel Element (CCE) of the first cell; the first cell is a cell in the first base station;

if the first base station determines that the duration of the first cell meeting a first preset condition is greater than or equal to a time threshold when an equalization period arrives, determining that the first cell is in a high-load state when the equalization period arrives, and determining a second cell capable of receiving a user to be equalized of the first cell from neighboring cells of the first cell;

the value of the duration time when the first cell does not satisfy the first preset condition is zero; the first preset condition includes: the CCE utilization rate of the first cell for uplink scheduling of the physical downlink control channel PDCCH is greater than or equal to a first threshold value, or the CCE utilization rate of the first cell for downlink scheduling of the PDCCH is greater than or equal to a second threshold value;

and the first base station balances the users to be balanced of the first cell to the second cell.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first base station determines a second cell that can receive the user to be equalized of the first cell from neighboring cells of the first cell, comprising:

the first base station acquires the CCE utilization rate of the adjacent cell of the first cell;

the first base station determines an adjacent cell meeting a second preset condition from adjacent cells of the first cell, and the adjacent cell is used as a second cell which can receive a user to be equalized of the first cell;

the second preset condition includes:

and the difference value between the CCE utilization rate of the first cell and the CCE utilization rate of the adjacent cell is larger than a third preset threshold value, and the CCE utilization rate of the adjacent cell is smaller than a fourth threshold value.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the number of users to be equalized for the first cell is determined based on a CCE utilization of the first cell, a total number of users of the first cell, and a CCE utilization of the second cell.

4. A method according to any of claims 1 to 3, wherein the neighbouring cells of the first cell comprise cells of a second base station;

before the first base station determines a second cell that can receive the user to be equalized from neighboring cells of the first cell, the method further includes:

the first base station sends a first resource state request message to the second base station; the first resource status request message is used for acquiring the CCE utilization rate of each cell of the second base station;

the first base station periodically receives a resource state updating message sent by the second base station; the resource state updating message comprises CCE utilization rates of all cells in the second base station; the resource status update message is used for the first base station to determine a second cell which can receive the user to be equalized of the first cell from the adjacent cells of the first cell.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein after the first base station transmits the first resource status request message to the second base station, further comprising:

if the first base station determines that no cell in a high load state exists in the first base station, the first base station sends a second resource state request message to the second base station; the second resource status request message is used to instruct the second base station to stop sending the resource status update message.

6. A first base station, comprising:

a determining unit, configured to determine a load state of a first cell according to a CCE utilization of the first cell; if the duration that the first cell meets the first preset condition when the equalization period arrives is determined to be larger than or equal to a time threshold, determining that the first cell is in a high-load state when the equalization period arrives, and determining a second cell which can receive a user to be equalized of the first cell from the adjacent cells of the first cell; the first cell is a cell in the first base station;

7. The first base station of claim 6, further comprising an acquisition unit to:

acquiring the CCE utilization rate of the adjacent cell of the first cell;

the determining unit is configured to determine, from neighboring cells of the first cell, a neighboring cell that meets a second preset condition as a second cell that can receive a user to be balanced in the first cell;

the second preset condition includes:

8. The first base station of claim 6, wherein the number of users to be equalized for the first cell is determined based on the CCE utilization of the first cell, the total number of users for the first cell, and the CCE utilization of the second cell.

9. The first base station according to any of claims 6 to 8, characterised in that the neighbouring cell of the first cell is a cell of a second base station; the first base station further comprises a transceiver unit;

the transceiver unit is configured to send a first resource status request message to the second base station; periodically receiving a resource state updating message sent by the second base station; wherein, the first resource status request message is used for acquiring the CCE utilization rate of each cell of the second base station; the resource state updating message comprises CCE utilization rates of all cells in the second base station; the resource status update message is used for the first base station to determine a second cell which can receive the user to be equalized of the first cell from the adjacent cells of the first cell.

10. The first base station of claim 9, wherein the transceiver unit is further configured to:

if the first base station is determined not to have the cell in the high load state, sending a second resource state request message to the second base station; the second resource status request message is used to instruct the second base station to stop sending the resource status update message.

11. A network device, comprising:

a memory for storing program instructions;

a processor for calling program instructions stored in said memory to execute the method of any one of claims 1 to 5 in accordance with the obtained program.

12. A computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon computer-executable instructions for causing a computer to perform the method of any one of claims 1 to 5.