EP3942706A1

EP3942706A1 - Radio network node and method performed therein for handling a transmission in a wireless communication network

Info

Publication number: EP3942706A1
Application number: EP19920976.8A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Niklas JALDÉN; David Astely; Nafiseh SHARIATI
Original assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson AB
Current assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson AB
Priority date: 2019-03-22
Filing date: 2019-03-22
Publication date: 2022-01-26
Also published as: WO2020197449A1

Abstract

Embodiments herein relate e.g. to a method performed by a first radio network node (12) for handling transmission of data in a wireless communication network. The first radio network node (12) determines a first load of the first radio network node (12), and obtains an indication of a second load of a second radio network node (13). The first radio network node further selects one or more transmission parameters for one or more beams based on the determined first load and the obtained indication of the second load. The first radio network node further performs a transmission of data to a wireless device (10) using the selected one or more transmission parameters and the one or more beams.

Description

RADIO NETWORK NODE AND METHOD PERFORMED THEREIN FOR HANDLING A TRANSMISSION IN A WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORK

TECHNICAL FIELD

Embodiments herein relate to a radio network node and method performed therein for wireless communication. In particular, embodiments herein relate to handling a transmission, e.g. performing a beamformed transmission of data, in a wireless communication network. BACKGROUND

In a typical wireless communication network, wireless devices, also known as wireless communication devices, mobile stations, stations (STA) and/or user equipments (UE), may communicate via a Radio Access Network (RAN) to one or more core networks (CN). The RAN covers a geographical area which is divided into service areas, also known as cells, with each cell being served by a radio network node e.g., a Wi-Fi access point or a radio base station (RBS), which in some networks may also be called, for example, a NodeB, an eNodeB or a gNodeB. The cell is a geographical area where radio coverage is provided by the radio network node. The radio network node operates on radio frequencies to communicate over an air interface with the wireless devices within range of the radio network node. The radio network node communicates over a downlink (DL) to the wireless device and the wireless device communicates over an uplink (UL) to the radio network node.

A Universal Mobile Telecommunications network (UMTS) is a third generation (3G) telecommunications network, which evolved from the second generation (2G) Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM). The UMTS terrestrial radio access network (UTRAN) is essentially a RAN using wideband code division multiple access (WCDMA) and/or High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) for user equipments. In a forum known as the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), telecommunications suppliers propose and agree upon standards for e.g. third generation networks, and investigate enhanced data rate and radio capacity and upcoming generation networks. In some RANs, e.g. as in UMTS, several radio network nodes may be connected, e.g., by landlines or microwave, to a controller node, such as a radio network controller (RNC) or a base station controller (BSC), which supervises and coordinates various activities of the plural radio network nodes connected thereto. This type of connection is sometimes referred to as a backhaul connection. The RNCs and BSCs are typically connected to one or more core networks.

Specifications for the Evolved Packet System (EPS), also called a Fourth

Generation (4G) network, have been completed within the 3GPP and this work continues in the coming 3GPP releases, for example to specify a Fifth Generation (5G) network. The EPS comprises the Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN), also known as the Long Term Evolution (LTE) radio access network, and the Evolved Packet Core (EPC) network, also known as System Architecture Evolution (SAE) core network. E-UTRAN/LTE is a variant of a 3GPP radio access network wherein the radio network nodes are directly connected to the EPC network rather than to RNCs. In general, in E- UTRAN/LTE the functions of an RNC are distributed between the radio network nodes, e.g. eNodeBs in LTE, and the core network. As such, the RAN of an EPS has an essentially“flat” architecture comprising radio network nodes connected directly to one or more core networks, i.e. they are not connected to RNCs. To compensate for that, the E- UTRAN specification defines a direct interface between the radio network nodes, this interface being denoted the X2 interface.

With the 5G technologies such as New Radio (NR), the use of very many transmit- and receive-antenna elements is of great interest as it makes it possible to utilize beamforming, such as transmit-side and receive-side beamforming. Transmit-side beamforming means that the transmitter can amplify the transmitted signals in a selected direction or from selected directions, while suppressing the transmitted signals in other directions. Similarly, on the receive-side, a receiver can amplify signals from a selected direction or from selected directions, while suppressing unwanted signals from other directions.

Future wireless communication networks, for example NR and evolutions of LTE, are expected to provide ubiquitous high data-rate coverage. Achieving this requires an efficient use of the available resources. In light of this; higher number of antenna elements, at the transmitter and at the receiver, are considered in future standards of, for example, LTE and NR. With multiple antennas at the transmitter and/or the receiver, it is possible to exploit the spatial degrees of freedom offered by the multipath fading inside the wireless channel in order to provide a substantial increase in the data rates and reliability of wireless transmission. In the downlink, there are three basic approaches for utilizing the antenna: diversity, multiplexing and beamforming. With beamforming, the radiation pattern of the antennas may be controlled by transmitting a signal from a plurality of elements with an element specific gain and phase, referred to as a beam. In this way, radiation patterns, beams, with different pointing directions and beam widths in both elevation and azimuth directions may be created depending on the structure of the array.

The gains from adjusting the beam shapes used for transmissions come from both increased received power e.g. increased signal to noise ratio (SNR), as well as a possibly lower received interference e.g. increased signal interference plus noise ratio (SINR), in a multi cell scenario. In a beamforming concept for example, a precoder, W, used for transmitting information to a wireless device, k, is a function of the current knowledge of the cannel, H_k, between radio network node and the wireless device, as well as knowledge of the channel (or statistics of the channel) Q_j to possible interfered wireless device, That is:

Wk=f(Hk,Qj). (1 ) The optimal precoder function f{H_k,Qj), is a tradeoff between maximizing the received power to the intended wireless device, k, while minimizing the interference generated to non-intended wireless device / As an illustrative explanation consider

Fig.1 A. Fig. 1 A illustrates array gain along the y-axis and the angle along the x-axis. Fig.

1 A shows a first beampattern intended for a wireless device in a left graph, and a second beampattern intended for the wireless device minimizing the interference to a secondary wireless device in a right graph. The first and second wireless device locations are indicated by the respective black and dashed lines. Flence, the black line indicates the direction of the beam towards the intended wireless device, whereas the dashed line indicates a direction towards an interfered wireless device served by a different radio network node. If the target function was to only maximize the received power to the intended wireless device, a beampattern according to the left graph may be selected. But if the target was to optimize a balance of received power versus interference generated, the beampattern according to the right graph may be selected. From the right graph it is obvious that the interference to the dashed line direction decreased substantially, denoted M, at the cost of slightly lower received power, denoted P, in the black line direction. Even though minimizing interference generated on neighbouring cells does not provide any direct benefit to the wireless devices in the current cell, it has been shown in various studies that in a system where all cells are nice to their neighbours by mitigating the interference generated, the overall system capacity may be increased e.g. more than In other words, a radio network node using mitigating interference algorithms in one cell uses some of its degree of freedom, and hence sacrifices its own resources or performance to be nice to its neighbouring cells. By using a non-optimal precoder, that is beamformed in a non-optimal manner from an in-cell received power perspective, for transmissions, the resource utilization for serving its own wireless devices would increase. However, since all cells in the network behave in the same way, the overall interference is decreased, which reduces the resource utilization by a fraction larger than the increase from using the non-optimal precoder, hence resulting in a net benefit.

An illustration of this is given in Fig. 1 B. In case A, a non-interference-mitigating scheme is used by both eNB1 and eNB 2. UE1 and UE2 have a decent performance since both serving sites do their best to serve its own UEs but they are both interfered by each other’s beam. This case A is illustrative of a textbook state of the art. In Case B, eNB1 applies an interference mitigating scheme, but not eNB2. This results in an increased performance for UE2, due to the decreased interference form eNB1 , at the cost of a decreased performance for its own target user, UE1. In Case C, both cells apply an interference mitigating scheme, and the net result is an increased performance for both UE1 and UE2 compared to case A. However, applying interference mitigating schemes may not affect the performance of the served wireless devices. SUMMARY

Most deployments in real cities are non-homogenous in the building structures and distribution of wireless devices. This leads, in some cases, to an uneven load between the cells deployed to serve the network coverage area wherein a few cells may be overloaded and may be struggling to serve its wireless devices while other cells are basically not experiencing any load at all. The highly loaded cells may be making an effort not only serving the wireless devices within the cell but also to be nice to the neighbouring cells, which neighbouring radio network nodes may have no problems at all to serve their wireless devices given the resources available to them. In such a scenario, the cost for being nice to the neighbours may put unreasonable constraints on the radio network node providing the already loaded cell.

An object herein is to provide a mechanism to handle a transmission in an efficient manner in a wireless communication network.

According to an aspect the object is achieved, according to embodiments herein, by providing a method performed by a first radio network node for handling transmission of data in a wireless communication network. The first radio network node determines a first load of the first radio network node, and obtains an indication of a second load of a second radio network node. The first radio network node further selects one or more transmission parameters for one or more beams based on the determined first load and the obtained indication of the second load. The first radio network node further performs a transmission of data to a wireless device using the selected one or more transmission parameters and the one or more beams.

It is furthermore provided herein a computer program product comprising instructions, which, when executed on at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to carry out the method above, as performed by the first radio network node. It is additionally provided herein a computer-readable storage medium, having stored thereon the computer program product comprising instructions which, when executed on at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to carry out the method above, as performed by the first radio network node.

According to an aspect the object is achieved, according to embodiments herein, by providing a first radio network node for handling transmission of data in a wireless communication network. The first radio network node is configured to determine a first load of the first radio network node, and to obtain an indication of a second load of a second radio network node. The first radio network node is further configured to select one or more transmission parameters for one or more beams based on the determined first load and the obtained indication of the second load. The first radio network node is also configured to perform a transmission of data to a wireless device using the selected one or more transmission parameters and the one or more beams.

It is herein provided a beamforming scheme that balances the received signal power, such as energy, received, e.g. as indicated by signal strength, at wireless devices in the first cell against the interference created to one or more neighbouring cells, where the interference suppression is adjusted based on the first load in the current cell and the second load in interfered cell(s).

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Embodiments will now be described in more detail in relation to the enclosed drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 Ais a schematic overview depicting gain of different beams or directions of signals; Fig. 1 Bis a schematic overview depicting scenarios of beamforming according to prior art; Fig. 2 is a schematic overview depicting a wireless communication network according to embodiments herein; Fig. 3 shows a combined flowchart and signalling scheme according to embodiments herein;

Fig. 4 shows a combined flowchart and signalling scheme according to embodiments herein;

Fig. 5 shows a schematic flowchart depicting a method performed by a radio network node according to embodiments herein;

Fig. 6 is a block diagram depicting a radio network node according to embodiments herein;

Fig. 7 shows a telecommunication network connected via an intermediate network to a host computer in accordance with some embodiments;

Fig. 8 shows a host computer communicating via a base station with a user equipment over a partially wireless connection in accordance with some embodiments;

Fig. 9 shows methods implemented in a communication system including a host

computer, a base station and a user equipment in accordance with some embodiments;

Fig. 10 shows methods implemented in a communication system including a host

Fig. 1 1 shows methods implemented in a communication system including a host

computer, a base station and a user equipment in accordance with some embodiments; and

Fig. 12 shows methods implemented in a communication system including a host

computer, a base station and a user equipment in accordance with some embodiments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Embodiments herein relate to wireless communication networks in general. Fig. 2 is a schematic overview depicting a wireless communication network 1. The wireless communication network 1 comprises one or more RANs and one or more CNs. The wireless communication network 1 may use one or a number of different technologies. Embodiments herein relate to recent technology trends that are of particular interest in a 5G context, e.g. for an NR system, however, embodiments are also applicable in further development of existing wireless communication systems such as e.g. LTE and Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA). In the wireless communication network 1 , wireless devices are configured to communicate with one another e.g. a wireless device 10, such as a mobile station, a non-access point (non-AP) STA, a STA, a user equipment and/or a wireless terminal, may be configured for communication. It should be understood by the skilled in the art that “wireless device” is a non-limiting term which means any terminal, wireless

communication terminal, user equipment, internet of things (loT) operable device,

Machine Type Communication (MTC) device, Device to Device (D2D) terminal, or node e.g. smart phone, laptop, mobile phone, sensor, relay, mobile tablets or even a small base station capable of communicating using radio communication with a radio network node or a wireless device.

The wireless communication network 1 comprises a first radio network node 12 , also referred to as the radio network node, providing radio coverage over a geographical area, a first service area 11 also known as a first cell, of a first radio access technology (RAT), such as LTE or NR or similar. The first radio network node 12 may be a

transmission and reception point such as an access node, an access controller, a base station, e.g. a radio base station such as a gNodeB (gNB), an evolved Node B (eNB, eNode B), a NodeB, a base transceiver station, a radio remote unit, an Access Point Base Station, a base station router, a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) access point or an Access Point Station (AP STA), a transmission arrangement of a radio base station, a stand-alone access point or any other network unit or node capable of communicating with a wireless device within the area served by the first radio network node 12 depending e.g. on the first radio access technology and terminology used. The first radio network node 12 may be referred to as a serving radio network node wherein the first service area 1 1 may be referred to as a serving cell, and the first radio network node 12 communicates with the wireless device 10 in form of DL transmissions to the wireless device 10 and UL transmissions from the wireless device 10. It should be noted that a service area may be denoted as cell, beam, beam group or similar to define an area of radio coverage.

Furthermore, the wireless communication network 1 comprises a second radio network node 13, also referred to as another radio network node, providing radio coverage over a geographical area, a second service area 11 also referred to as a second cell, of a second radio access technology (RAT), such as NR or LTE or similar. The first and second RAT may be the same or different. The second radio network node 13 may be a transmission and reception point such as an access node, an access controller, a base station, e.g. a radio base station such as a gNodeB (gNB), an evolved Node B (eNB, eNode B), NodeB, a base transceiver station, a radio remote unit, an Access Point Base Station, a base station router, a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) access point or an Access Point Station (AP STA), a transmission arrangement of a radio base station, a stand-alone access point or any other network unit or node capable of communicating with a wireless device within the area served by the second radio network node 13 depending e.g. on the second RAT and terminology used. The second radio network node may be denoted as neighbouring radio network node and the second cell may be denoted as neighbouring cell.

Each radio network node beamforms data transmission towards one or more wireless devices served by respective radio network node. Beamforming allows the signal to be stronger for an individual connection. On the transmit-side this may be achieved by a concentration of the transmitted power in the desired direction(s), and on the receive- side this may be achieved by an increased receiver sensitivity in the desired direction(s). This beamforming enhances throughput and coverage of the connection. It also allows reducing the interference such as unwanted signals, thereby enabling several

simultaneous transmissions over multiple individual connections using the same resources in the time-frequency grid, so-called multi-user Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO). To cover the whole service area, multiple transmissions with narrow beams steered differently in time domain may be performed. Thus, the first radio network node 12 beamforms its transmissions towards e.g. the wireless device 10 and the second radio network node 13 may beamform its transmissions towards e.g. a second wireless device 15.

Hence, the fist radio network node 12 may perform a transmission towards the wireless device 10, wherein the transmission is beamformed by using one or more transmission parameters such as phase and/or amplitude of antenna elements. The first radio network node 12 may further apply an interference mitigating scheme for its beamformed transmissions towards the wireless device 10 to reduce interference to wireless devices served by other beams of other radio network nodes. The one or more transmission parameters, used for the beamformed transmissions, may thus be selected to mitigate interference to other wireless devices, such as the second wireless device 15, served by the second radio network node 13.

According to embodiments herein the first radio network node 12 determines a first load of the first radio network node e.g. determines number of currently active wireless devices or amount of resources used. The first radio network node 12 further obtains, e.g. receives, an indication of a second load of the second radio network node 13 e.g.

receives a load indication or load information from the second radio network node 13 or from a different network node. The first radio network node 12 then selects one or more transmission parameters for one or more beam transmissions in the first cell taking the first load and the second load into account. For example, in case the first radio network node 12 has a higher load than the second radio network node 13, the first radio network node may reduce the degree of interference mitigation towards, or with respect to, beams of the second radio network node 13. Thus, the degree (also referred to as level) of interference mitigation may depend on the load in the current cell, e.g. the first cell, as well as the load in the neighboring second cell or cells. This provides a better balance in utilization of e.g. radio resources or serving UEs, between cells in a wireless

communication network which increases the overall capacity and network performance.

Thus, it is herein provided a beamforming scheme that balances the energy received at wireless devices in current cell against the interference created to

neighbouring cells, where the interference suppression is adjusted based on the load in the current cell and the load in the interfered cells, e.g. the neighbouring cells. Load may be indicated by time and/or frequency resource utilization. E.g. if one site uses most frequencies = high load, low frequency of transmissions and low bandwidth = low load.

Fig. 3 is a combined flowchart and signaling scheme according to embodiments herein.

Action 301. The wireless device 10 transmits a signal or similar to the first radio network node 12. The signal may be a reference signal or similar. One or more wireless devices may be communicating with the first radio network node 12.

Action 302. The first radio network node 12 may then determine the first load of the first radio network node 12 e.g. a load of a first beam or similar.

Action 303. The first radio network node 12 and the second radio network node 13 may then exchange information indicating the respective load of the radio network nodes or beams. The information may be obtained by signalling between radio network nodes over any interface such as the X2 interface. The information may also be retrieved or received from another network node such as an operation and maintenance node, a core network node or similar.

Action 304. The first radio network node 12 then selects one or more transmission parameters, such as phase and/or amplitude over antenna elements, of the first radio network node 12 taking the first load and the second load into account. The first radio network node 12 may select the one or more transmission parameters based on the first load relative the second load. Furthermore, the channel information may also be taken into account.

Action 305. The first radio network node 12 then uses the selected one or more transmission parameters when performing beamformed transmission towards the wireless device 10. Hence, the first radio network node 12 may adapt beams towards one or more wireless devices based on whether the load in one or more neighbouring radio network nodes and/or neighbouring beams is high or low relative the load in the first radio network node 12. Fig. 4 is a combined flowchart and signaling scheme according to embodiments herein.

Action 401. The wireless device 10 transmits a signal to the first radio network node 12. The signal may be a reference signal or similar. One or more wireless devices may be communicating with the first radio network node 12. This signal or signals may be used to determine channel state information for communication with the wireless device 10.

Action 402. The first radio network node 12 may then determine the channel state information for the communication with the wireless device 10 and/or load in the first radio network node 12. E.g. the first radio network node 12 may then determine the load in the radio network node 12 e.g. amount of used resources out of a capacity of resources.

Action 403. The first radio network node 12 exchanges, with the second radio network node 13, information representing or indicating utilization, such as level of resources used or served wireless devices, and thus load of the respective radio network node. The information may further comprise channel state information for links to served and potentially interfered wireless devices. Thus, respective radio network node may obtain information relating to served wireless devices and potentially interfered wireless devices by exchanging information over e.g. X2 interface.

Action 404. The first radio network node 12 may then calculate a scaling factor also denoted as an interference mitigation scaling factor a. This scaling factor may be based on the loads relative one another or based on respective load of the radio network nodes.

Action 405. The first radio network node 12 may further calculate a precoder such as a downlink precoder to be used when transmitting data to one or more wireless devices 10 served by the first radio network node 12 using beamformed transmissions. The first radio network node 12 may thus calculate a precoder given channel state information for served wireless devices and/or interfered wireless devices, and the scaling factor a.

Action 406. The first radio network node 12 may then use the calculated precoder when performing beamformed transmission towards the wireless device 10. The proposed scheme balances the utilization in the network in a better way and improves the radio conditions for wireless devices in overloaded cells and boosts overall system

performance.

The method actions performed by the first radio network node 12 for handling transmission of data in the wireless communication network according to embodiments will now be described with reference to a flowchart depicted in Fig. 5. The actions do not have to be taken in the order stated below, but may be taken in any suitable order.

Actions performed in some, but not necessarily all, embodiments are marked as dashed boxes.

Action 501. The first radio network node 12 determines the first load of the first radio network node 12. Measures or metrics of a current load in the system could for example be number of currently connected or active wireless devices in the respective cell. As another example, it could be information of the fraction of time and/or frequency resources used out of available time and/or frequency resources of the first radio network node 12. E.g. the number of resource blocks used per transmission time interval (TTI) and the number of TTI’s used for data transmission for currently active wireless devices.

Action 502. The first radio network node 12 obtains the indication of the second load of the second radio network node 13. For example, the first radio network node 12 may receive data, such as a value, an index, or a flag value, indicating a load or a level of load from the second radio network node 13. The indication may thus indicate level of load, a value of load or be a one-bit indication indicating a load above a threshold. The indication may be information exchanged, e.g. transmitted, between the radio network nodes e.g. performed by information sharing between neighbouring radio network nodes over, for example, the X2 interface. The first and second loads may be represented by a current number of active users in the respective cell balanced with an average path loss. The path loss is a metric that may represent averaged received power from a UE and may be one of the channel information metrics which is used for calculating the precoder.

Action 503. The first radio network node 12 may further select one or more transmission parameters for one or more beams used by the first network node 12 based on the determined first load and the obtained indication of the second load, or the second load as indicated by the obtained indication. The first radio network node 12 may in addition select one or more transmission parameters for the one or more beams by taking also interference caused, by the use of the one or more beams for transmissions by the first radio network node 12, to one or more wireless devices 15 served by the second radio network node 13, into account. The first radio network node 12 may utilize information of the first load in the current cell and information of the second load in adjacent cells to decide how much effort should be spent on suppressing interference to be nice to neighboring cells or nodes. The one or more transmission parameters may be selected to provide a degree, e.g. in terms of the scaling factor, of interference mitigation to or for one or more wireless devices served 15 by the second radio network node 13. The first radio network node 12 may select the one or more transmission parameters for the one or more beams by calculating a precoder based on channel state information for one or more wireless devices 10 served by the first radio network node 12, and based on the scaling factor for taking the first load and the second load into account. In short a precoder calculation

Wk=f ( Hk , Qj ) (1)

as given in (1 ), is modified by accounting for the scaling factor denoted as interference mitigation scaling factor a, according to

W_k=f ( H_k , *Q_j)

Where a_bNB2 < a_bNBΐ if the utilization for the second radio network node 13, denoted as eNB2, is higher than the utilization for the first radio network node 12, denoted as eNB1 , as may be the case in scenario B in Fig. 1 B. Thus the utilization indicates the load. The absolute levels of load and interference in the cell may further be taken into account when setting the cell individual a_eNBi. Further one may add some level of hysteresis in the settings such that a decreased a_bNBΐ does not result in an higher utilization for second radio network node 13 than for the first radio network node 12. The one or more transmission parameters may be selected to provide a first degree of interference mitigation for one or more wireless devices 15 served by the second radio network node 13 when the first load is lower than the second load, and with the proviso that the first load is equal to or higher than the second load, the one or more transmission parameters may be selected to provide a second degree of interference mitigation for one or more wireless devices 15 served by the second radio network node 13, wherein the first degree is higher than the second degree. I.e. when the first radio network node 12 is highly loaded as compared to the second radio network node 13, the scaling factor used by the first radio network node 12 for mitigating interference may be set very low, whereas when the second radio network node 13 is highly loaded as compared to the first radio network node 12, the scaling factor used by the first radio network node 12 for mitigating interference may be set to a higher value. In some embodiments the one or more transmission parameters may be selected to provide a signal strength or signal quality above a threshold, e.g. to maximize the signal strength, for the one or more wireless devices 10 served by the one or more beams used, e.g. generated or transmitted, by the first radio network node 12 when the first load is higher than the second load. Interference caused to one or more wireless devices served by the second beam may then be ignored or the degree of interference mitigation provided to one or more wireless devices 15 served by the second radio network node 13, may be set below a degree threshold, e.g. minimized such as set to zero.

Action 504. The first radio network node 12 performs the transmission of data to the wireless device 10 using the selected one or more transmission parameters and the one or more beams.

The proposed scheme balances the utilization in the network in a better way. This in turn improves the radio conditions for wireless devices in overloaded cells and boosts overall system performance.

Fig. 6 is a block diagram depicting the radio network node 12 for handling communication according to embodiments herein.

The radio network node 12 may comprise processing circuitry 601 , e.g. one or more processors, configured to perform the methods herein.

The first radio network node 12 may comprise a determining unit 602. The first radio network node 12, the processing circuitry 601 , and/or the determining unit 602 is configured to determine the first load of the first radio network node 12.

The first radio network node 12 may comprise an obtaining unit 603., e.g. a communication module for communication via a communication or network interface such as an X2 interface, or a receiver module or a transceiver module. The first radio network node 12, the processing circuitry 601 , and/or the obtaining unit 603 is configured to obtain the indication of the second load of the second radio network node 13. It should here be noted that the first radio network node 12 may obtain load of a number of other radio network nodes. The radio network node 12 may comprise a selecting unit 604. The radio network node 12, the processing circuitry 601 , and/or the selecting unit 604 is configured to select the one or more transmission parameters based on the first and second loads, i.e. first load and the obtained indication of the second load. The radio network node 12, the processing circuitry 601 , and/or the selecting unit 604 may be configured to select the one or more transmission parameters for the one or more beams by further taking interference caused to one or more wireless devices 15 served by the second radio network node 13, into account. The radio network node 12, the processing circuitry 601 , and/or the selecting unit 604 may be configured to select the one or more transmission parameters to provide a degree of interference mitigation for one or more wireless devices 15 served by the second radio network node 13. E.g. the radio network node 12, the processing circuitry 601 , and/or the selecting unit 604 may be configured to select the one or more transmission parameters to provide a first degree of interference mitigation for one or more wireless devices 15 served by the second radio network node 13 when the first load is lower than the second load, and with the proviso that the first load is equal to or higher than the second load, the radio network node 12, the processing circuitry 601 , and/or the selecting unit 604 may be configured to select the one or more transmission parameters to provide a second degree of interference mitigation for one or more wireless devices 15 served by the second radio network node 13, wherein the first degree is higher than the second degree. The radio network node 12, the processing circuitry 601 , and/or the selecting unit 604 may be configured to select the one or more transmission parameters to provide a signal strength or signal quality above a threshold for the one or more wireless devices 10 served by the one or more beams used, e.g. generated or transmitted, by the first radio network node 12 when the first load is higher than the second load. Interference caused to one or more wireless devices 15 served by the second radio network node 13 may then be ignored or the degree of interference mitigation for one or more wireless devices 15 served by the second radio network node 13 may be set below a degree threshold. The radio network node 12, the processing circuitry 601 , and/or the selecting unit 604 may be configured to select the one or more transmission parameters for the one or more beams by calculating a precoder based on channel state information for one or more wireless devices 10 served by the first radio network node 12, and based on the scaling factor for taking the first load and the second load into account.

The first radio network node 12 may comprise a performing unit 605., e.g. a transmitter module or a transceiver module, e.g. with a number of antenna elements. The first radio network node 12, the processing circuitry 601 , and/or the performing unit 605 is configured to perform the transmission of data to the wireless device 10 using the selected one or more transmission parameters and the one or more beams.

The first radio network node 12 further comprises a memory 606. The memory comprises one or more units to be used to store data on, such as indications, mitigation processes, gain and/or phase adjustments, precoder information, loads, indication of loads, scaling factors, applications to perform the methods disclosed herein when being executed, and similar.

The methods according to the embodiments described herein for the first radio network node 12 are respectively implemented by means of e.g. a computer program product 607 or a computer program, comprising instructions, i.e., software code portions, which, when executed on at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to carry out the actions described herein, as performed by the first radio network node 12. The computer program product 607 may be stored on a computer-readable storage medium 608, e.g. a disc, a universal serial bus (USB) stick or similar. The computer- readable storage medium 608, having stored thereon the computer program product, may comprise the instructions which, when executed on at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to carry out the actions described herein, as performed by the first radio network node 12. In some embodiments, the computer-readable storage medium may be a transitory or a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium. The first radio network node 12 may further comprise a communication interface comprising transmitter, receiver, transceiver, a network interface, e.g. an Xn interface and/or an X2 interface, and/or one or more antennas. In some embodiments a more general term“radio network node” is used and it can correspond to any type of radio-network node or any network node, which

communicates with a wireless device and/or with another network node. Examples of network nodes are NodeB, gNodeB, eNodeB, Master eNB, Secondary eNB, a network node belonging to Master cell group (MCG) or Secondary cell group (SCG), base station (BS), multi-standard radio (MSR) radio node such as MSR base station, network controller, radio-network controller (RNC), base station controller (BSC), relay, donor node controlling relay, base transceiver station (BTS), access point (AP), transmission points, transmission nodes, Remote radio Unit (RRU), Remote Radio Head (RRH), nodes in distributed antenna system (DAS), etc. In some embodiments the non-limiting term wireless device or user equipment (UE) is used and it refers to any type of wireless device communicating with a network node and/or with another wireless device in a cellular or mobile communication system. Examples of UE are target device, device to device (D2D) UE, proximity capable UE (aka ProSe UE), machine type UE or UE capable of machine to machine (M2M)

communication, Tablet, mobile terminals, smart phone, laptop embedded equipped (LEE), laptop mounted equipment (LME), USB dongles etc.

Embodiments are applicable to any RAT or multi-RAT systems, where the wireless device receives and/or transmit signals (e.g. data) e.g. New Radio (NR), Wi-Fi, Long Term Evolution (LTE), LTE-Advanced, Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA), Global System for Mobile communications/enhanced Data rate for GSM Evolution

(GSM/EDGE), Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMax), or Ultra Mobile Broadband (UMB), just to mention a few possible implementations.

It will be readily understood by those familiar with communications design, that functions means or units may be implemented using digital logic and/or one or more microcontrollers, microprocessors, or other digital hardware. In some embodiments, several or all of the various functions may be implemented together, such as in a single application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), or in two or more separate devices with appropriate hardware and/or software interfaces between them. Several of the

functions may be implemented on a processor shared with other functional

components of a wireless device or network node, for example.

Alternatively, several of the functional elements of the processing means discussed may be provided through the use of dedicated hardware, while others are provided with hardware for executing software, in association with the appropriate software or firmware. Thus, the term“processor” or“controller” as used herein does not exclusively refer to hardware capable of executing software and may implicitly include, without limitation, digital signal processor (DSP) hardware and/or program or application data. Other hardware, conventional and/or custom, may also be included. Designers of communications devices will appreciate the cost, performance, and maintenance trade-offs inherent in these design choices.

With reference to Fig 7, in accordance with an embodiment, a communication system includes a telecommunication network 3210, such as a 3GPP-type cellular network, which comprises an access network 321 1 , such as a radio access network, and a core network 3214. The access network 321 1 comprises a plurality of base stations 3212a, 3212b, 3212c, such as NBs, eNBs, gNBs or other types of wireless access points being examples of the radio network node 12 herein, each defining a corresponding coverage area 3213a, 3213b, 3213c. Each base station 3212a, 3212b, 3212c is connectable to the core network 3214 over a wired or wireless connection 3215. A first user equipment (UE) 3291 , being an example of the wireless device 10, located in coverage area 3213c is configured to wirelessly connect to, or be paged by, the corresponding base station 3212c. A second UE 3292 in coverage area 3213a is wirelessly connectable to the corresponding base station 3212a. While a plurality of UEs 3291 , 3292 are illustrated in this example, the disclosed embodiments are equally applicable to a situation where a sole UE is in the coverage area or where a sole UE is connecting to the corresponding base station 3212.

The telecommunication network 3210 is itself connected to a host computer 3230, which may be embodied in the hardware and/or software of a standalone server, a cloud-implemented server, a distributed server or as processing resources in a server farm. The host computer 3230 may be under the ownership or control of a service provider, or may be operated by the service provider or on behalf of the service provider. The connections 3221 , 3222 between the telecommunication network 3210 and the host computer 3230 may extend directly from the core network 3214 to the host computer 3230 or may go via an optional intermediate network 3220. The intermediate network 3220 may be one of, or a combination of more than one of, a public, private or hosted network; the intermediate network 3220, if any, may be a backbone network or the Internet; in particular, the intermediate network 3220 may comprise two or more sub-networks (not shown).

The communication system of Figure 7 as a whole enables connectivity between one of the connected UEs 3291 , 3292 and the host computer 3230. The connectivity may be described as an over-the-top (OTT) connection 3250. The host computer 3230 and the connected UEs 3291 , 3292 are configured to communicate data and/or signaling via the OTT connection 3250, using the access network 321 1 , the core network 3214, any intermediate network 3220 and possible further infrastructure (not shown) as intermediaries. The OTT connection 3250 may be transparent in the sense that the participating communication devices through which the OTT connection 3250 passes are unaware of routing of uplink and downlink communications. For example, a base station 3212 may not or need not be informed about the past routing of an incoming downlink communication with data originating from a host computer 3230 to be forwarded (e.g., handed over) to a connected UE 3291. Similarly, the base station 3212 need not be aware of the future routing of an outgoing uplink

communication originating from the UE 3291 towards the host computer 3230.

Example implementations, in accordance with an embodiment, of the UE, base station and host computer discussed in the preceding paragraphs will now be described with reference to Fig. 8. In a communication system 3300, a host computer 3310 comprises hardware 3315 including a communication interface 3316 configured to set up and maintain a wired or wireless connection with an interface of a different communication device of the communication system 3300. The host computer 3310 further comprises processing circuitry 3318, which may have storage and/or processing capabilities. In particular, the processing circuitry 3318 may comprise one or more programmable processors, application-specific integrated circuits, field programmable gate arrays or combinations of these (not shown) adapted to execute instructions. The host computer 3310 further comprises software 331 1 , which is stored in or accessible by the host computer 3310 and executable by the processing circuitry 3318. The software 331 1 includes a host application 3312. The host application 3312 may be operable to provide a service to a remote user, such as a UE 3330 connecting via an OTT connection 3350 terminating at the UE 3330 and the host computer 3310. In providing the service to the remote user, the host application 3312 may provide user data which is transmitted using the OTT connection 3350.

The communication system 3300 further includes a base station 3320 provided in a telecommunication system and comprising hardware 3325 enabling it to communicate with the host computer 3310 and with the UE 3330. The hardware 3325 may include a communication interface 3326 for setting up and maintaining a wired or wireless connection with an interface of a different communication device of the communication system 3300, as well as a radio interface 3327 for setting up and maintaining at least a wireless connection 3370 with a UE 3330 located in a coverage area (not shown in Fig.8) served by the base station 3320. The communication interface 3326 may be configured to facilitate a connection 3360 to the host computer 3310. The connection 3360 may be direct or it may pass through a core network (not shown in Fig.8) of the telecommunication system and/or through one or more intermediate networks outside the telecommunication system. In the embodiment shown, the hardware 3325 of the base station 3320 further includes processing circuitry 3328, which may comprise one or more programmable processors, application-specific integrated circuits, field programmable gate arrays or combinations of these (not shown) adapted to execute instructions. The base station 3320 further has software 3321 stored internally or accessible via an external connection.

The communication system 3300 further includes the UE 3330 already referred to. Its hardware 3335 may include a radio interface 3337 configured to set up and maintain a wireless connection 3370 with a base station serving a coverage area in which the UE 3330 is currently located. The hardware 3335 of the UE 3330 further includes processing circuitry 3338, which may comprise one or more programmable processors, application-specific integrated circuits, field programmable gate arrays or combinations of these (not shown) adapted to execute instructions. The UE 3330 further comprises software 3331 , which is stored in or accessible by the UE 3330 and executable by the processing circuitry 3338. The software 3331 includes a client application 3332. The client application 3332 may be operable to provide a service to a human or non-human user via the UE 3330, with the support of the host computer 3310. In the host computer 3310, an executing host application 3312 may

communicate with the executing client application 3332 via the OTT connection 3350 terminating at the UE 3330 and the host computer 3310. In providing the service to the user, the client application 3332 may receive request data from the host application 3312 and provide user data in response to the request data. The OTT connection 3350 may transfer both the request data and the user data. The client application 3332 may interact with the user to generate the user data that it provides.

It is noted that the host computer 3310, base station 3320 and UE 3330 illustrated in Fig.8 may be identical to the host computer 3230, one of the base stations 3212a, 3212b, 3212c and one of the UEs 3291 , 3292 of Fig. 7, respectively. This is to say, the inner workings of these entities may be as shown in Fig. 8 and independently, the surrounding network topology may be that of Fig. 7.

In Fig. 8, the OTT connection 3350 has been drawn abstractly to illustrate the communication between the host computer 3310 and the user equipment 3330 via the base station 3320, without explicit reference to any intermediary devices and the precise routing of messages via these devices. Network infrastructure may determine the routing, which it may be configured to hide from the UE 3330 or from the service provider operating the host computer 3310, or both. While the OTT connection 3350 is active, the network infrastructure may further take decisions by which it dynamically changes the routing (e.g., on the basis of load balancing consideration or

reconfiguration of the network). The wireless connection 3370 between the UE 3330 and the base station 3320 is in accordance with the teachings of the embodiments described throughout this disclosure. One or more of the various embodiments improve the performance of OTT services provided to the UE 3330 using the OTT connection 3350, in which the wireless connection 3370 forms the last segment. More precisely, the teachings of these embodiments may improve usage of resources since the mitigation scheme is used based on the load in a neighbouring radio network node resulting in an efficient use of resource with improved performance and that may affect the latency and thereby provide benefits such as reduced user waiting time, and better responsiveness.

A measurement procedure may be provided for the purpose of monitoring data rate, latency and other factors on which the one or more embodiments improve. There may further be an optional network functionality for reconfiguring the OTT connection 3350 between the host computer 3310 and UE 3330, in response to variations in the measurement results. The measurement procedure and/or the network functionality for reconfiguring the OTT connection 3350 may be implemented in the software 331 1 of the host computer 3310 or in the software 3331 of the UE 3330, or both. In

embodiments, sensors (not shown) may be deployed in or in association with communication devices through which the OTT connection 3350 passes; the sensors may participate in the measurement procedure by supplying values of the monitored quantities exemplified above, or supplying values of other physical quantities from which software 331 1 , 3331 may compute or estimate the monitored quantities. The reconfiguring of the OTT connection 3350 may include message format, retransmission settings, preferred routing etc.; the reconfiguring need not affect the base station 3320, and it may be unknown or imperceptible to the base station 3320. Such procedures and functionalities may be known and practiced in the art. In certain embodiments, measurements may involve proprietary UE signaling facilitating the host computer’s 3310 measurements of throughput, propagation times, latency and the like. The measurements may be implemented in that the software 331 1 , 3331 causes messages to be transmitted, in particular empty or‘dummy’ messages, using the OTT connection 3350 while it monitors propagation times, errors etc.

Fig. 9 is a flowchart illustrating a method implemented in a communication system, in accordance with one embodiment. The communication system includes a host computer, a base station and a UE which may be those described with reference to Figures 7 and 8. For simplicity of the present disclosure, only drawing references to Figure 9 will be included in this section. In a first step 3410 of the method, the host computer provides user data. In an optional substep 341 1 of the first step 3410, the host computer provides the user data by executing a host application. In a second step 3420, the host computer initiates a transmission carrying the user data to the UE. In an optional third step 3430, the base station transmits to the UE the user data which was carried in the transmission that the host computer initiated, in accordance with the teachings of the embodiments described throughout this disclosure. In an optional fourth step 3440, the UE executes a client application associated with the host application executed by the host computer.

Fig. 10 is a flowchart illustrating a method implemented in a communication system, in accordance with one embodiment. The communication system includes a host computer, a base station and a UE which may be those described with reference to Figures 7 and 8. For simplicity of the present disclosure, only drawing references to Figure 10 will be included in this section. In a first step 3510 of the method, the host computer provides user data. In an optional substep (not shown) the host computer provides the user data by executing a host application. In a second step 3520, the host computer initiates a transmission carrying the user data to the UE. The transmission may pass via the base station, in accordance with the teachings of the embodiments described throughout this disclosure. In an optional third step 3530, the UE receives the user data carried in the transmission.

Fig. 11 is a flowchart illustrating a method implemented in a communication system, in accordance with one embodiment. The communication system includes a host computer, a base station and a UE which may be those described with reference to Figures 7 and 8. For simplicity of the present disclosure, only drawing references to Figure 1 1 will be included in this section. In an optional first step 3610 of the method, the UE receives input data provided by the host computer. Additionally or alternatively, in an optional second step 3620, the UE provides user data. In an optional substep 3621 of the second step 3620, the UE provides the user data by executing a client application. In a further optional substep 361 1 of the first step 3610, the UE executes a client application which provides the user data in reaction to the received input data provided by the host computer. In providing the user data, the executed client application may further consider user input received from the user. Regardless of the specific manner in which the user data was provided, the UE initiates, in an optional third substep 3630, transmission of the user data to the host computer. In a fourth step 3640 of the method, the host computer receives the user data transmitted from the UE, in accordance with the teachings of the embodiments described throughout this disclosure.

Fig. 12 is a flowchart illustrating a method implemented in a communication system, in accordance with one embodiment. The communication system includes a host computer, a base station and a UE which may be those described with reference to Figures 7 and 8. For simplicity of the present disclosure, only drawing references to Figure 12 will be included in this section. In an optional first step 3710 of the method, in accordance with the teachings of the embodiments described throughout this disclosure, the base station receives user data from the UE. In an optional second step 3720, the base station initiates transmission of the received user data to the host computer. In a third step 3730, the host computer receives the user data carried in the transmission initiated by the base station.

It will be appreciated that the foregoing description and the accompanying drawings represent non-limiting examples of the methods and apparatus taught herein. As such, the apparatus and techniques taught herein are not limited by the foregoing description and accompanying drawings. Instead, the embodiments herein are limited only by the following claims and their legal equivalents.

Abbreviation Explanation

3G Third Generation of Mobile Telecommunications Technology BSM Basic Safety Message

BW Bandwidth

BSR Buffer Status Report

CAM Cooperative Awareness Message

CBR Channel Busy Ratio

DPTF Data Packet Transmission Format

D2D Device-to-Device Communication

DENM Decentralized Environmental Notification Message

DSRC Dedicated Short-Range Communications

eNB eNodeB

ETSI European Telecommunications Standards Institute

LTE Long-Term Evolution

NW Network

RS Reference Signals

TF Transport Format

SAE Society of the Automotive Engineers

UE User Equipment

V2I Vehicle-to-lnfrastructure

V2P Vehicle-to-Pedestrian

V2V Vehicle-to-(vehicle) communication

V2x Vehicle-to-anything-you-can-imagine

wrt with respect to

SPS Semi Persistent Scheduling

DMRS Demodulation reference signals

OCC Orthogonal cover code

PDCCH Physical Downlink Control Channel

DBS Delay-Based Scheduler

MAC Medium Access Control MAC CE MAC Control Element

PUSCH Physical Uplink Shared Channel

PUCCH Physical Uplink Control Channel

PDU Packet Data Unit

3GPP Third Generation Partnership Project

LCID Logical Channel Identity

MAC Medium Access Control

MAC CE Medium Access Control - Control Element RRC Radio Resource Control

IP Internet Protocol

PPPP ProSe Per Packet Priority

PPPR ProSe Per Packet Reliability

ProSe Proximity Services

PRB Physical Resource Block

SL Sidelink

SPS Semi-Persistent Scheduling

UL Uplink

DL Downlink

LCG Logical Channel Group

SFN System Frame Number

TTI Transmission Time Interval

SCI Sidenlink Control Information

CA Carrier Aggregation

SLRB Sidelink Radio Bearer

UICC Universal Integrated Circuit Card

ME Mobile Equipment

ID Identifier

PDB Packet Delay Budget

CBR Congestion Busy Ratio

SDU Service Data Unit PDU Protocol Data Unit BLER Block Error Rate

Claims

1 . A method performed by a first radio network node (12) for handling

transmission of data in a wireless communication network, the method comprising:

- determining (501 ) a first load of the first radio network node (12);

- obtaining (502) an indication of a second load of a second radio network node (13);

- selecting (503) one or more transmission parameters for one or more beams based on the determined first load and the obtained indication of the second load; and

- performing (504) a transmission of data to a wireless device (10) using the selected one or more transmission parameters and the one or more beams.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein selecting (503) the one or more transmission parameters for the one or more beams further comprises taking interference caused by the one or more beams to one or more wireless devices (15) served by the second radio network node (13), into account.

3. The method according to any one of the claims 1 -2, wherein the one or more transmission parameters are selected to provide a degree of interference mitigation for one or more wireless devices (15) served by the second radio network node (13).

4. The method according to any one of the claims 1 -3, wherein when the first load is lower than the second load, the one or more transmission parameters are selected to provide a first degree of interference mitigation for the one or more wireless devices (15) served by the second radio network node (13), and when the first load is equal to or higher than the second load, the one or more transmission parameters are selected to provide a second degree of interference mitigation for the one or more wireless devices (15) served by the second radio network node (13), wherein the first degree is higher than the second degree.

5. The method according to any one of the claims 1 -4, wherein when the first load is higher than the second load, the one or more transmission parameters are selected to provide a signal strength or signal quality above a threshold for the one or more wireless devices (10) served by the one or more beams transmitted by the first radio network node (12), and interference caused to the one or more wireless devices (15) served by the second radio network node (13) is ignored or a degree of interference mitigation provided for the one or more wireless devices (15) served by the second radio network node (13) is selected to be below a degree threshold.

6. The method according to any one of the claims 1 -5, wherein selecting (503) the one or more transmission parameters for the one or more beams comprises calculating a precoder based on channel state information of the one or more wireless devices (10) served by the first radio network node (12), and based on a scaling factor taking the first load and the second load into account.

7. A first radio network node (12) for handling transmission of data in a wireless communication network, wherein the first radio network node (12) is configured to:

determine a first load of the first radio network node (12);

obtain an indication of a second load of a second radio network node (13); select one or more transmission parameters for one or more beams based on the determined first load and the obtained indication of the second load; and

perform a transmission of data to a wireless device (10) using the selected one or more transmission parameters and the one or more beams.

8. The first radio network node (12) according to claim 7, wherein the first radio network node (12) is configured to select the one or more transmission parameters for the one or more beams by further taking interference caused by the one or more beams to one or more wireless devices (15) served by the second radio network node (13), into account.

9. The first radio network node (12) according to any one of the claims 7-8,

wherein the first radio network node (12) is configured to select the one or more transmission parameters to provide a degree of interference mitigation for one or more wireless devices (15) served by the second radio network node (13).

10. The first radio network node (12) according to any one of the claims 7-9,

wherein when the first load is lower than the second load, the first radio network node (12) is configured to select the one or more transmission parameters to provide a first degree of interference mitigation for the one or more wireless devices (15) served by the second radio network node (13), and when the first load is equal to or higher than the second load, the one or more transmission parameters are selected to provide a second degree of interference mitigation for the one or more wireless devices (15) served by the second radio network node (13), wherein the first degree is higher than the second degree.

1 1. The first radio network node (12) according to any of the claims 7-10, wherein when the first load is higher than the second load, the first radio network node (12) is configured to select the one or more transmission parameters to provide a signal strength or signal quality above a threshold for the one or more wireless devices (10) served by the one or more beams transmitted by the first radio network node (12), and interference caused to the one or more wireless devices (15) served by the second radio network node (13) is ignored or a degree of interference mitigation provided for the one or more wireless devices (15) served by the second radio network node (13), is selected to be below a degree threshold.

12. The first radio network node (12) according to any one of the claims 7-1 1 , wherein the first radio network node (12) is configured to select the one or more transmission parameters for the one or more beams by calculating a precoder based on channel state information of the one or more wireless devices (10) served by the first radio network node (12), and based on a scaling factor taking the first load and the second load into account.

13. A computer program product comprising instructions, which, when executed on at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to carry out the method according to any one of the claims 1 -6, as performed by the first radio network node (12).

14. A computer-readable storage medium, having stored thereon a computer program product comprising instructions which, when executed on at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to carry out the method according to any one of the claims 1 -6, as performed by the first radio network node (12).